At the Berlin conference “War and Peace” of the New Society for Psychology, on April 12, communication and media scientist Prof. Michael Meyen addressed the topic “Journalism and Power” and the question of why leading media do not fulfill their public mandate. Meyen presented the working reality and conditions of journalists in mainstream media, which no longer adhered to the journalistic code of objective reporting. By becoming the official voice of governments, they contributed to war propaganda. Journalism is currently squeezed between government propaganda and platform censorship, Meyen argued.
At the beginning of his presentation, the media researcher explained his thesis that so-called leading media – for example, the Süddeutsche Zeitung – deceive their readers with a false image of reality, but consumers still rely on this unrealistic portrayal. The Munich professor explained:
“The leading media create a reality that has nothing to do with reality.”
Consumers are mostly aware of the unrealistic portrayals in the media they consume. However, this pseudo-reality still shapes the attitude of people in Germany. Because these media possess such a definitional power that readers let themselves be influenced by this power just to avoid being isolated. Meyen explained:
“Whoever consumes leading media does not want to know what reality is, but wants to know what others know. The person wants to know what is current in their environment to not be isolated.”
The power of leading media is based on the human need for belongingness.
Why do journalists fail to fulfill their mandate of objective reporting?
The official journalism ideology includes the following principles:
the journalist is independent and reports objectively and impartially; journalism is the fourth and independent power in the state; the broadcasting belongs to the people (“Broadcasting belongs to us”).
These principles are upheld in public, but they do not correspond to the professional reality. If one looks at the ownership of German media, one can see that German media conglomerates are owned by a few wealthy families. The owners influence the content and reporting in their media products.
In public broadcasting, the influence is no less decisive. There is a close connection between public broadcasting and politics, so that independent reporting or the fourth power can no longer be talked about. After all, the political sphere appoints the broadcasting board members.
The working conditions of journalists also contribute to the fact that they can hardly afford an independent portrayal of events: two-thirds of all German journalists work without a fixed contract, so they are constantly under economic pressure. Also, a large part of journalists in leading media comes from a certain middle-class milieu. As an aspiring reporter, one earns so little in the first years that young journalists are mostly dependent on financial support from their families. Therefore, reporters from more affluent backgrounds are already part of a certain opinion bubble.
Propaganda and censorship
In his next part of the presentation, Meyen defined propaganda as any attempt to influence the public opinion climate in a society. The state propaganda power in Germany has been massively reinforced in the last 25 years. The Press and Information Office of the Federal Government alone is currently staffed with 500 employees and has a budget of 100 million euros to ensure the dissemination of government-conforming narratives.
For this purpose, resources have been massively shifted: employees with expertise have been cut in favor of more general public experts, who have been increased. Basically, more and more journalist positions and resources are being cut in the redaction, while resources for propaganda are being increased. Original journalism, in which reporters observe events with their own eyes and ears on the ground, is therefore becoming less and less common.
To strengthen public support for the war and strengthen the motivation for military service, the propaganda apparatus of the Bundeswehr has also been massively expanded. The Federal Ministry of Defense employs 95 editors for this purpose. The military itself is also increasingly trained in media. Officer training now includes a media focus.
To make the Bundeswehr and military service more attractive for young people, expensive media campaigns have been launched. For the elaborate Bundeswehr advertising, particularly attractive young people were cast. In the campaign, they apparently convey the image of a wonderful atmosphere with wonderful people in a great working environment at the Bundeswehr.
Censorship and algorithms in social media
Under the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), illegal internet content should be reported, removed, or punished. The media expert wondered whether the recently introduced EU directive would remain a paper tiger or whether it would be implemented by the individual member states. However, it is now known that the new federal government, according to the planned coalition agreement, will provide resources to pursue “hate and incitement to hatred” according to the Digital Services Act rules.
Michael Meyen also spoke about the specific manipulation function in social media. The knowledge of our manipulability is built into the platforms. Accordingly, messages that should be disseminated are promoted. This also uses psychological characteristics of humans:
People are basically more easily influenced by emotions than by statements of fact – we are also more easily influenced by people we know than by unknown persons. In this way, it can be explained why messages with emotional evaluations such as “I love” or “I hate” would achieve such reach on social platforms.
The study of manipulation methods is not new. The British have been researching methods of psychological and mental manipulation of people since the First World War. The research area includes how to spread divisions, emotionalization, or even speechlessness in a population.
Outlook and action possibilities
To resist the power of leading media and manipulation methods, it would take enlightenment and the strengthening of a counterculture, according to the media expert. Every redaction has at least one journalist who would provide honest reporting. By writing letters and positive feedback to redactions, one can support such journalists. It is also important to promote new, non-conglomerate media. At the end, Meyen also suggested producing and distributing more analog media. Printed news can hardly be censored.
Professor Michael Meyen has been teaching at the Institute for Communication and Media Research at Ludwig-Maximilian-University in Munich since 2002. He published the book ‘Die Propaganda-Matrix’ (The Propaganda Matrix) in the Rubikon Verlag in 2021. His recent publications include ‘Cancel Culture’ and ‘Der dressierte Nachwuchs’ (The trained offspring) in the Hintergrund Verlag.