Characteristics of propaganda-oriented media systems

The media and journalists, especially journalism in the public interest, are increasingly becoming isolated pieces of public resistance against all attempts to normalize totalitarianism. Over the past decade business models based on the attention-trade  have exposed the banal fact that hate (in all its forms) sells extremely well. The click-based media ecosystem makes a profit by destroying democracy. It is precisely for this reason that it is the responsibility of journalists – as well as everyone who appears in the public space – to fight against such practices.

Attacks on public media, attempts to brutally dismantle, abolish or privatize them are becoming the scene of new struggles for the democratization of the public sphere. Not only must we learn to recognize the practices of dehumanizing opponents in public life, we must resist these practices day after day. When the media becomes part of the propaganda machine of one party and when the dividing line between journalism and propaganda is systematically erased in the interest of the political and/or economic elite, it is clear that we need radical media reforms in the public interest.

The answer to the question whether politics has radicalized the media, or whether the media has radicalized politics, must be found in the heart of the political-economic system in which the media operate. And this system is not conducive to democracy.

Propaganda-oriented media systems are paradoxically increasingly dependent on public money. The non-transparent flow of public funds into the media in dubious advertising deals is often the the fuel of hatred, and anyone can become an enemy at any time. Saying that we didn’t know certain things, that nothing can be done, is the first sign that totalitarianism is winning.

A detailed presentation of how propaganda-oriented media systems work and why it is necessary to oppose them is presented in the following analysis. The purpose of the analysis is to strengthen awareness that the normalization of the propaganda media and communication system leads to the normalization of totalitarianism.