Nexus - 0403 - New Times Magazine-pages

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pendent experts on Third World development issues. All of them | THE POWER OF CORPORATE PROPAGANDA are now focusing on the effects of unregulated globalisation, Currently, the major battle is over popular culture and informa- which is emerging as the most important political issue of the tion—a battle for the hearts and minds of consumers and citizens. 1990s. More precisely, it's a battle that will determine whether the aver- Because of the economic and environmental pressures that age person will have a heart and mind at all, after another genera- motivate the activists opposed to globalisation, this will be an tion of 'McCulture' and infotainment. The question of "Why important issue well into the next century. Social life promises to Johnny can't dissent" is answered by watching MTV and its many get worse before it gets better. World population will increase imitators. The boundaries between advertising, entertainment from 5.5 billion to more than nine billion in the next 50 years, and information—with MTV's three-second interviews with polit- with 95 per cent of this increase in the poorest regions of the ical figures—are being utterly destroyed. Special effects have world. This growth rate is clearly unsustainable, as it depends on replaced content. These debased messages and images, many an ecosystem that's losing its capacity to support even current coming from a television that's on 50 hours a week in the average numbers, given the inability of governments to organise in the American home, has caused a serious decline in literacy and criti- public interest. cal thought. Even newspapers, such as USA Today, have turned For travelling author Robert D. Kaplan, the anarchy and chaos the news into easily-digested bites surrounded by colour.” of West Africa is a premonition of the future, "the symbol of Behind the canned news and advertising of the ideology indus- worldwide demographic, environmental and societal stress." '* try are thousands of well-paid professionals. At many universi- Borders become mere conventions used by ties, journalism schools now share resources mapmakers, as refugee migration, smuggling, with public relations and advertising courses official corruption, criminals and armed rebels " . under the same "communications" depart- all contribute to the general disintegration: The twentieth century ment. PR practitioners in the US now out- "It is time to understand 'the environment’ for has been characterised | number reporters, and some of the best jour- what it is: the national-security issue of the nalism schools send more than half of their early 21st century. The political and strategic by three developments of graduates into these firms. impact of surging populations, spreading dis- great political The distinction between journalism and jy detorstaton and soleion vats | jmportance: the growth | Ml wits faling yh Same sea levels in critical, overcrowded regions like of democracy, the fed from PR firms to newsrooms. ee Delta and Bangladesh “developments growth of corporate Journalists get wo versions ask final ver at will prompt mass migrations and, in sion, and a raw one that they can edit. turn, incite group conflicts—will be the power, and the growth of Most budget-conscious newsrooms core foreign-policy challenge from which corporate propaganda as simply present the slick version as hard most others will ultimately emanate." A news. And worthwhile new books are Kaplan wrote this three years ago, a means of protecting becoming rare: today's literary agents corporate power against democracy." before the term "globalisation" was used and publishers consider a promising as a handle to identify those private inter- investigative exposé to be a manuscript ests that are contributing to the problem. that offers titillating gossip about pri- Even when direct acts by the transnation- vate lives in Hollywood. als are not seen as the problem, it is still It's the rich corporations that can the case that only these private interests afford the services of PR professionals. have the wealth and resources necessary Nearly every major advertising agency to improve the public welfare. either owns or is paired with a large PR Unfortunately, they have yet even to firm. Along with those catchy "video express an interest in lending a hand. news releases” that newsrooms love so Judging from the people behind Kaplan, he might not use the = much, some PR firms offer industrial espionage, infiltration of word "globalisation" today. Kaplan sees the next century with an civic and political groups, planted stories and phony grass-roots eye toward its strategic implications for national security, rather campaigns. Their corporate clients call this "integrated communi- than in terms of international class conflict. This isn't surprising. cations". The grass-roots campaigns, commonly referred to as Kaplan received support from the US Institute of Peace and the "astroturf movements", are disguised as concerned citizens driven Foreign Policy Research Institute for expanding his article into a _ by conscience to petition the government. Since big money is Random House book. Both of these sponsors are linked to the US available just underneath this fagade, many politicians are no Alex Carey intelligence community. doubt grateful for the cover that "astroturf" provides.” While Kaplan captures the sense of social dissolution felt by Frequently, PR firms flack for foreign governments and must many of us, his imagination is limited. He envisions a world register with the Department of Justice as foreign agents. Not so where private security forces and proxy armies are in perpetual long ago, our media was more like a bumbling giant, certainly low-intensity conflict with disenfranchised marauders, armed less centralised and seemingly less homogenous. In a story that cults and organised gangs. Given this scenario, it's easy to guess made headlines in 1978, Prime Minister John Vorster was forced which side the Pentagon and CIA will support, for our national to resign when South Africa's apartheid government earmarked security elites were bought and paid for long ago by the transna- millions for the secret purchase of two major US dailies, the tional elites. There aren't yet any politicians with the clout to Sacramento Union and the Washington Star. After the scandal challenge this establishment, and only a handful with the courage. broke, South Africa had to settle for increasing the number of US But this does not preclude the possibility of organised, effective public relations firms on its payroll: in 1979 there were 22, and opposition to globalisation. by 1984 there were 31. Haiti, Indonesia, the Philippines, South 16 - NEXUS APRIL - MAY 1997