mawk
01-27-2004, 12:01 AM
Hi Beverly and interested onlookers,
Actually, I am quite a fan of Pilger's after reading his book "Hidden
Agendas" some five or ten years ago. His book was one of the reasons that I
ceased to consider myself an Australian citizen but rather a citizen of the
planet Earth. I did not agree with the blood our Government had on its hands
for selling out East Timor for oil and gas rights. I did an essay based on
an SBS interview of Pilger (see References below for link) during the Iraq
war (April 2003) for Social Psychology. The essay dealt with much that he
raised in the link you provided. My essay (500 word limit) was required to
link a piece of psychological research with a real world situation. I have
provided it below as it also ties in with David W's link from the
perspective of filtered reporting.
Cheers,
Mawk
The dateline transcript is concerned with a controversial journalist called
John Pilger, and the broader view that he might provide to the current
debate concerning the conflict in Iraq. Pilger is well known in the UK for
his books and documentaries that portray a strong anti-globalization
message. More recently, Pilger has made several documentaries depicting the
plight of the Iraqi people. Given Pilger's background, dateline explores the
issue of why his knowledge and views are noticeably absent from mainstream
media sources?
In the general paradigm of Social Identity Theory (SIT), and the more
specific context of "generating collective protest in response to tokenism"
(Wright, 1997), the SBS transcript provides the potential for numerous
in-group and out-group scenarios with particular emphasis placed on
tokenism. Moreland (1965) cited in Wright (1997) defined tokenism as
"extreme restrictions on boundary permeability that result in a form of
intergroup discrimination". This paper focuses on the in-group (alternate
media consumers and providers, including Pilger) verses the advantaged
out-group (the mainstream media; major newspapers, television networks and
their associated journalists and management). The basis of the out-groups
advantage lies in its access to a greater exposure of its information to
media consumers as a whole, and its apparent discriminative practice of
stifling access to the in-group (providers of the alternate and usually
conflicting views). The inferred social influence of this presumed bias of
reporting is that the greater Australian public have been manipulated into
entering a war without an adequate understanding of what might be at stake.
Wright's (1997) research attempts to make salient the individual in an
intergroup context such that their understanding of their in-groups
situation results from the actions and activities of an advantaged outgroup.
Disadvantaged in-group members respond to the actions of an out-group.
Pilger uses several strategies that exemplify this idea mainly designed to
raise awareness of the out-groups machinations. In the SBS transcript
tokenism is expressed by the degree of access to the mainstream media.
Pilger obviously is in the disadvantaged in-group as he champions the
alternate view. His behaviour also indicates that he is invoking collective
action from the in-group.
Turner & Brown (1978) found that collective action requires perceptions of
illegitimacy. Wright (1997) further notes that an increase in response
indicated by collective action is dependent on individual specific attention
being aroused rather than a general increase in the in-groups salience.
Pilger's actions seem to endorse these findings by bringing specific
attention to the various examples deployed by the out-group of illegitimate
behaviour against the in-group. The illegitimate behaviour arises due to the
out-group limiting the public's access to the full extent of the debate on
the Iraq conflict.
An interesting point to consider and watch is how does SBS fit into this
paradigm and does this reflect the instability of the current media
environment due to new information resource competition such as the
internet? Clearly the current geopolitical climate is extremely fluid, and
with the advent of new technologies equally as revolutionary, the group
dynamics of the media should continue to provide an interesting medium for
investigating social influence and its associated hypotheses.
References
Moreland, J. K. (1965). Token desegregation and beyond. In L. Berkowitz
(Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (pp. 229-238). New York:
Academic Press.
SBS Dateline Transcript:
http://www.sbs.com.au/dateline/trans.php3?dte=2003-04-02&title=John+Pilger (http://www.sbs.com.au/dateline/trans.php3?dte=2003-04-02&title=John+Pilger)
Turner, J. C. & Brown, R. J. (1978). Social status, cognitive alternatives
and intergroup relations. In H. Tajfel (Ed.), Differentiation between social
groups: Studies in the social psychology of intergroup relations (pp.
201-234). London: Academic Press.
Wright, S. C. (1997). Ambiguity, social influence, and collective action:
Generating collective protest in response to tokenism. Personality and
Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 1277-1290.
Actually, I am quite a fan of Pilger's after reading his book "Hidden
Agendas" some five or ten years ago. His book was one of the reasons that I
ceased to consider myself an Australian citizen but rather a citizen of the
planet Earth. I did not agree with the blood our Government had on its hands
for selling out East Timor for oil and gas rights. I did an essay based on
an SBS interview of Pilger (see References below for link) during the Iraq
war (April 2003) for Social Psychology. The essay dealt with much that he
raised in the link you provided. My essay (500 word limit) was required to
link a piece of psychological research with a real world situation. I have
provided it below as it also ties in with David W's link from the
perspective of filtered reporting.
Cheers,
Mawk
The dateline transcript is concerned with a controversial journalist called
John Pilger, and the broader view that he might provide to the current
debate concerning the conflict in Iraq. Pilger is well known in the UK for
his books and documentaries that portray a strong anti-globalization
message. More recently, Pilger has made several documentaries depicting the
plight of the Iraqi people. Given Pilger's background, dateline explores the
issue of why his knowledge and views are noticeably absent from mainstream
media sources?
In the general paradigm of Social Identity Theory (SIT), and the more
specific context of "generating collective protest in response to tokenism"
(Wright, 1997), the SBS transcript provides the potential for numerous
in-group and out-group scenarios with particular emphasis placed on
tokenism. Moreland (1965) cited in Wright (1997) defined tokenism as
"extreme restrictions on boundary permeability that result in a form of
intergroup discrimination". This paper focuses on the in-group (alternate
media consumers and providers, including Pilger) verses the advantaged
out-group (the mainstream media; major newspapers, television networks and
their associated journalists and management). The basis of the out-groups
advantage lies in its access to a greater exposure of its information to
media consumers as a whole, and its apparent discriminative practice of
stifling access to the in-group (providers of the alternate and usually
conflicting views). The inferred social influence of this presumed bias of
reporting is that the greater Australian public have been manipulated into
entering a war without an adequate understanding of what might be at stake.
Wright's (1997) research attempts to make salient the individual in an
intergroup context such that their understanding of their in-groups
situation results from the actions and activities of an advantaged outgroup.
Disadvantaged in-group members respond to the actions of an out-group.
Pilger uses several strategies that exemplify this idea mainly designed to
raise awareness of the out-groups machinations. In the SBS transcript
tokenism is expressed by the degree of access to the mainstream media.
Pilger obviously is in the disadvantaged in-group as he champions the
alternate view. His behaviour also indicates that he is invoking collective
action from the in-group.
Turner & Brown (1978) found that collective action requires perceptions of
illegitimacy. Wright (1997) further notes that an increase in response
indicated by collective action is dependent on individual specific attention
being aroused rather than a general increase in the in-groups salience.
Pilger's actions seem to endorse these findings by bringing specific
attention to the various examples deployed by the out-group of illegitimate
behaviour against the in-group. The illegitimate behaviour arises due to the
out-group limiting the public's access to the full extent of the debate on
the Iraq conflict.
An interesting point to consider and watch is how does SBS fit into this
paradigm and does this reflect the instability of the current media
environment due to new information resource competition such as the
internet? Clearly the current geopolitical climate is extremely fluid, and
with the advent of new technologies equally as revolutionary, the group
dynamics of the media should continue to provide an interesting medium for
investigating social influence and its associated hypotheses.
References
Moreland, J. K. (1965). Token desegregation and beyond. In L. Berkowitz
(Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (pp. 229-238). New York:
Academic Press.
SBS Dateline Transcript:
http://www.sbs.com.au/dateline/trans.php3?dte=2003-04-02&title=John+Pilger (http://www.sbs.com.au/dateline/trans.php3?dte=2003-04-02&title=John+Pilger)
Turner, J. C. & Brown, R. J. (1978). Social status, cognitive alternatives
and intergroup relations. In H. Tajfel (Ed.), Differentiation between social
groups: Studies in the social psychology of intergroup relations (pp.
201-234). London: Academic Press.
Wright, S. C. (1997). Ambiguity, social influence, and collective action:
Generating collective protest in response to tokenism. Personality and
Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 1277-1290.