Theories about Government Control of Media Content

1
Theories about Government Control of Media Content

• Authoritarian theory text page 98
• Libertarian theory page 100
• Soviet Communist Theory page 102
• Social Responsibility Theory page 104

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The Authoritarian View

• You Cant Handle The Truth!
• Or can you?
• The oldest theory
• Plato would ban poets from his ideal Republic
• 16th and 17th centuries religious and
  government leaders controlled content of the
  press.

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Should Authorities Control Media Content?

• Some argue that information is too powerful a
  tool for the average person to handle.
• Information equals power so those in authority
  want to control information so they can control
  ideas so they can control those over whom they
  have power.

4
Who are these tyrants?

• Kings
• Feudal Lords
• Popes, Cardinals, Bishops, Ministers, Lay Church
  Leaders
• Dictators
• Presidents Of School Boards.

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Johannes Gutenberg the man who made the word
available to the masses.
borrows money . . . 1457 Buys a press and from
1457 to 1458 prints a bible. Uses moveable type.
In 1448, Gutenberg and a typesetter named Peter
Shoffer developed engraved steel signatures for
each number, letter and punctuation mark. Metal
matrixes were formed to hold the figures and,
voila, movable type was invented. The book could
be published.
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Gutenberg - 1454 (MCDLIV)
The Bible, Old Testament Book of Judges (Latin)
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How about a bible the average guy can read?
1521. A humanist named William Tyndale gets an
idea how about a vernacular translation of the
Holy Bible.
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Whats Wrong With A Bible In English?

• Latin was the language of the elite those in
  authority.
• One of Tynedales FRIENDS told him it is better
  to listen to the word of the church than the word
  of God.
• Church You cant handle the truth.
• Tynedale was hunted down, sentenced to death,
  throttled (choked to death), then burned.
• Message sent, message received.

Dont mess with God, er, the church, er, with me.
Ah, just choke the bloke.
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Henry VIII - The King of Authority

• In 1529, after Dutch tracts that challenged royal
  authority began showing up in England, King Henry
  VIII outlawed imported publications.
• He also decreed that every English printer must
  be licensed. Printers caught producing anything
  objectionable to the Crown lost their licenses,
  in effect being put out of business.
• Remaining in the governments good graces brought
  favors. A license guaranteed a local monopoly and
  a lock on government and church printing jobs.

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Vas? I vrote a bible auf Deutsch and no one
strangled and burned me.
Martin Luther wrote a bible in German and got
away with it The church didnt like it but they
were preoccupied and didnt kill him.
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A new idea Birth of The Libertarian Theory

• By the 15th century (1600s), battles between
  factions in England plus a huge bureacracy was
  preventing some writers from being published.
• The protestant reformation encouraged revolt
  against feudal authority a chance for change,
  an opportunity for ideas to flourish.

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John Milton Wrote Areopagitica 1644

• The king required printers to get a license for
  each published document
• Milton argued against government licensing.

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Adam Smith
1723-1790
1776 published An Inquiry into the Nature and
Causes of the Wealth of Nations,"
Laissez Faire hands off policy of economic
governance. Let the invisible hand of the
competitive free market guide economics.
Economic marketplace supports the marketplace of
ideas envisioned by Milton.
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John Stuart Mill(1806 - 1873)
Greatest good for the greatest number. His son
was more clear about defending the minority.
Mill Jr If all mankind minus one were of a
contrary opinion, then mankind would be no more
justified in silencing that one person than he,
if he had the power, would be justified in
silencing mankind.
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Enlightenment ideals and Mass Media

• Pre-enlightenment Divine right of kings meant
  that kings had a special connection to God who
  gave them a unique understanding of truth
  (applies also to church hierarchy).
• The common man had no such insight.
• Enlightenment A man by his own mind without
  help or guidance from priests or royalty can come
  to understand truth.
• To understand truth, all information must be
  available to everyone, a Marketplace of Ideas, so
  the individual can see what is truth and what is
  not.

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Authoritarians Are Still Hard At Work but how
to be an authoritarian in an era of
libertarianism?
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Authoritarian Techniques

• Licensing Germany during Hitlers regime
  required writers and artists to belong to guilds
  - had to be a 3rd generation Aryan to belong to
  the writers guild.
• Bribery paying newspapers to print what the
  government wants printed.
• Repression arrests, jail, execution. Its hard
  to say what you want when you are dead.

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What is the first amendment?

• Congress shall make no law respecting an
• establishment of religion,
• or prohibiting the free exercise thereof
• or abridging the freedom of speech,
• or of the press
• or the right of the people peaceably to
  assemble,
• and to petition the government for a redress of
  grievances.

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Soviet Communist Theory

• Karl Marx said Mass Media ought to be the
  governments partner in facilitating the
  evolution of a perfect social harmony one,
  ironically, that would ultimately need no
  government.
• Vladimir Lenin The media was to be composed of
  collective propagandists, agitators and
  organizers.
• The 1925 Soviet constitution The fundamental
  purpose of the press was to strengthen Communist
  social order.

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Difference Between Authoritarian and Soviet
Communist Theories

• Modern authoritarianism allows for a capitalistic
  press. Authorities only interfere when their
  direct interests are in jeopardy.
• Under this system, profit has more to do with
  what ends up in the media than external controls.
• Unconcerned about profit, communist media people
  choose to provide coverage that furthers the
  governments ideological goals.
• Media decision makers usually are government
  officials chosen because they are ideologically
  bound to the Communist Party line.

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The Media Is Going To Eat Us!

• Over a period of several months the
  subcommittee has received a vast amount of mail
  from parents expressing concern regarding the
  possible deleterious effect upon their children
  of certain of the media of mass communication.
  Senator Estes Kefauver, D-Tenn, as the Senate
  launched a series of hearins in 1954 into the
  threat posted by . . .

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American comic books.
23
Why Plato Thought Poets Ought to Be Banned From
The Republic