Is it Either Or? Professional Ideology vs. Corporate-media Constraints

Abstract

The article critically assesses Herman and Chomsky's Propaganda Model and its third 'filter', which highlights the reliance of the media on information provided by governments and corporate institutions. Thereby, the relationship between the journalists' professional ideology and corporate-media constraints will be discussed. The text also incorporates critiques of the model. First, after a brief introduction of the main features of the Propaganda Model, the relevance of the third 'filter' will be indicated by arguing that the concept shares many similarities with the indexing theory. Afterwards, the article considers the third 'filter' and its applicability in relation to the British press. In the second part, the emergence of the professional ideology will be elaborated and linked to corporate control of the media. It will be argued that corporate constraints are the dominant determinants of media performance. Although professionalism allows for journalistic independence, it is a flexible construct that can be shaped by the demands of those who own, control and fund the media.

Bringing Propaganda Back into News Media Studies

“…Moreover, the PM does not specifically assess how effective propaganda may be (Herman and Chomsky, 2008: IL; see also Herman, 1986Herman, , 2000Thompson 2009). It should be further noted that PM's economic and ideological processes are uncontroversial and had, in isolation, already been identified by the so-called Gatekeeper researchers as well as scholars concerned with the political economy of the news like Lazarsfeld and Merton or Marxist scholar Miliband (see Herman, 1986;Lazarsfeld andMerton, 1957 [1948];Miliband, 1987Miliband, [1973Zollmann, 2009Zollmann, , 2012. Furthermore, current research suggests that these same processes are highly relevant in the online realm (see Curran 2012: 19;McChesney, 2013;Zollmann, 2015c).…”

“…Basically, ideological media propaganda is non-consensual because it works through omission (see Bakir et al, 2016). For instance, it is well established by research that the formation of the news media within the political and corporate nexus leads to the overrepresentation of official political and corporate practices, values and meanings in media content at the expense of others (for an overview of the research see Zollmann, 2009Zollmann, , 2012. As a consequence, the foundations of state-corporate capitalism are rarely questioned in any sustained way (see Zollmann 2009).…”

“…Institutional pressures are geared into the news media system in the fashion outlined by Lazarsfeld and Merton. Journalists adhere to institutional constraints because of their socialisation in the newsroom as well as internalisation of dominant values, norms and ideologies (see Zollmann, 2009Zollmann, , 2012Zollmann, , 2017. Journalists thus unintentionally produce and disseminate propaganda.…”

The freedom to be silent? Market pressures on journalistic normative ideals at the Nation Media Group in Kenya

“…The owners' wealth in the form of these businesses integrates the NMG into the corporate market system, where the pressure to protect these business interests may take precedence over the journalists' agency and autonomy (see Curran 2000;Herman and Chomsky 2002;Zollmann 2009). Most of the journalists also seemed to agree that it is impossible to separate the profit motive and the public interest motive in a commercial media venture such as the NMG.…”

“…It is evident from the responses that in most cases, these structural constraints on journalists to protect owners' interests are implicit, hence they are not readily available for direct observation. Although journalists may accurately state that no one told them to suppress or ignore a story, such self-policing is more dangerous than direct censorship, in particular because outsiders (the public) are often not aware that anything has taken place (see Klaehn 2009;Reese 2001;Zollmann 2009). Whether this pressure is implicit or explicit, the self-interested nature of commercial considerations can be seen to clash with the media ethical ideals of independence, fairness, balance and 'objectivity'.…”