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Evan Brauer
Wilson
H ELA 10
20 February 2015
Media Manipulation of the Public

In order to find the truth, one must step back and question reality. However, what happens
when an entire country fails to do this? The government has been using media to feed false
information to the public in order to control the people. Their methods are quite similar to the
tactics used by the Party in the novel, 1984. Manipulation of the public by the media is done
through the monopolization of the news industry, the use of tactics such as the portrayal of an
ostentatious reality, and by placing government agents inside major news networks.
The monopolization the news industry has made it easier to control the flow of information.
According to the article The Subtle and Manipulative Programming of the Mass Media by
Maximo Anguiano, the amount of major media networks has been reduced greatly over the
years. The article states that six corporations control 90% of everything we watch, listen to and
read in the United States (Anguiano). Governments can manipulate the media and the public
more easily if there are less corporations that they need to deal with. It is clear that this
monopolization has occurred from a graph created by the Media Reform Information Center,
titled Number of corporations that control a majority of U.S. media (see appendix A). The
graph shows that between 1993 and 2000, the number of major media corporations reduced
from 50 down to a lowly 6 organizations. In the process of the monopolization of the industry,
the government has gained almost complete control of all news being spread to the public.

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The government has its way of controlling corporations from the inside, even though news
networks are not controlled and run by them. Government agents have been cryptically placed
inside news networks to control the information that is given to the public. According to the
article, Truth, War Propaganda, CIA and Media Manipulation, the CIA ran a training program
to teach its agents to be journalists, who were then placed in major news organizations with
help from management(Global Research). It is quite obvious that media networks are controlled
almost entirely by government agencies. According to the article, Media Manipulation, news
organizations have been given fake news created by the government to give to the public. The
article states, In March 2005, the New York Times revealed that there has been a large amount
of fake and prepackaged news created by US government departments (Shah). This statement
from the article is proof that this is a problem that all of America is facing, and it needs to be
stopped.
There are tactics used by media sources to persuade the viewer to believe what they are being
told. These methods of mind control are seen throughout the world of media, and it is difficult to
spot these tactics in use. According to Maximo Anguiano in the article The Subtle and
Manipulative Programming of the Mass Media, the media mainly uses four different methods of
mind control, which are known as repetition, pushing agendas, fake reality, and distortion. These
methods make it possible for the media to tell the public anything, and they would most likely
believe it without any second thoughts, due to its pretentious nature. In the article Is Everything
in the Mainstream Media Fake? - 6 Examples of Media Manipulation, Sigmund Fraud explains
how Time Magazine consistently portrays a dumbed-down, frivolous image of life in America
while presenting an entirely different message to the rest of the world (Fraud). The media tries

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to show Americans a sanitized version of the news, while the rest of the world gets the truth. It
is clear that the American people are getting a false reality portrayed to them.
Through monopolizing the media, using government agents, and portraying a false reality to
the public, the people have been manipulated by the government through the media. However, it
is possible that the information that they are keeping from the people is best left unknown.
Keeping this away from the public could simply be for the safety of the country as a whole.
However, the general public has been obsequiously following the false sources of the media
without questioning what they are telling them. The people must begin to fight this issue, or
society could end up like 1984.

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Appendix A

"Media Reform Information Center." Media Reform Information Center. Web. 26 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.corporations.org/media/>

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Works Cited
"Is Everything in the Mainstream Media Fake? 6 Examples of Media Manipulation." Waking
Times. Web. 24 Feb. 2015. <http://www.wakingtimes.com/2014/02/27/everythingmainstream-media-fake-6-examples-media-manipulation/>.
"Media Manipulation." - Global Issues. Web. 25 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.globalissues.org/article/532/media-manipulation>.
"Media Manipulation Ebola and Beyond | Relativity OnLine." Media Manipulation Ebola
and Beyond | Relativity OnLine. Web. 26 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.relativityonline.com/from-the-editor/media-manipulation-ebola-andbeyond/>.
"Media Reform Information Center." Media Reform Information Center. Web. 26 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.corporations.org/media/>.
"NewsFocus." NewsFocus. Web. 19 Feb. 2015. <http://www.newsfocus.org/media_control.htm>.
"The Subtle and Manipulative Programming of the Mass Media." Latino Rebels. 01 Feb. 2015.
Web. 26 Feb. 2015. <http://www.latinorebels.com/2015/02/01/the-subtle-andmanipulative-programming-of-the-mass-media/>.
"Truth, War Propaganda, CIA and Media Manipulation." Global Research. Web. 26 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.globalresearch.ca/truth-propaganda-and-media-manipulation/23868>.