Having written posts on this blog for several years now, I have become ever more sensitive to how we, as news consumers, are subject to ideology \u2013 the invisible, shifting sands of our belief system.<\/p>\n
Those beliefs are not inbuilt, of course. How could they be? We are not born with pre-loaded software like a computer \u2013 even if our mental \u201chardware\u201d may shape what kind of information we are capable of processing and how we process it.<\/p>\n
And whatever we may imagine, our belief system is not really self-generated, dictated by life-experiences. It isn\u2019t only real-world events that determine our values and views. Events and experiences are interpreted and given meaning by those beliefs and values. Which is why it is quite possible \u2013 common, in fact \u2013 for us to hold contradictory beliefs at the same time: like worrying about the threat posed to our children’s future from climate change, while supporting political systems committed to building more roads and runways.<\/p>\n
Psychologists have a term for this phenomenon: cognitive dissonance.<\/p>\n
Rather, our ideological landscape is socially constructed and largely imposed on us from outside. Ideology frames experiences for us, adding a hidden layer of interpretation that encourages us to make sense of the world in useful ways. The most liberating question one can ask, therefore, is: to whom is any particular ideology useful?<\/p>\n
We inherit much of our ideology from parents and teachers. But ideology is not static. It is adaptive. Our assumptions, beliefs and values subtly change over time. And they change as the needs of the powerful change.<\/p>\n
The most powerful among us are powerful precisely because they create the dominant ideology \u2013 the thread of narrative that ties together what we imagine to be our personal understanding of why the world is as it is. That is why elites, whether the state or corporations, prioritise capturing the main channels of communication. They make sure to own and control the mass media.<\/p>\n
When powerful external actors are framing the world for us \u2013 whether it be through broadcasting, newspapers or social media \u2013 they get to decide what matters, what should be prioritised, what is right.<\/p>\n
That picture is particularly evident in the United States, where six corporations<\/a> control almost everything the American public hears, sees and thinks \u2013 and, via Hollywood, much of what the rest of us think too. Even in the UK, where a trusted public broadcaster, the BBC, dominates much media output, the situation is little different. As the British state itself has been increasingly captured by a corporate elite, the BBC is run on its behalf. Just look at who has been appointed the BBC\u2019s current chairman.<\/p>\n New BBC chair Richard Sharp is not only a major donor to the Conservative party but he helped to fund a firm accused of 'human warehousing', stuffing benefit recipients into 'rabbit hutch' flats to profit from a Conservative government scheme https:\/\/t.co\/nR4wOeZozv<\/a><\/p>\n — Jonathan Cook (@Jonathan_K_Cook) February 26, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n