30 min
The Biggest Threat to Democracy Isn’t Donald Trump, It’s Nationalism Hidden in American Journalism Baffled with David DesRoches
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- News Commentary
It's not so much what American journalists write that threatens democracy. No, it’s more about what they don't write -- context. This lack of context is what perpetuates American propaganda. Journalists might not be waving American flags and talking about freedom and democracy openly, but they are certainly doing that subversively, by omitting the context and withholding the whole truth.
And when we don’t tell the whole truth, journalists end up as unwitting regime propagandists. Who suffers as a result? Everyone. Democracy also suffers because the people remain uninformed and unable to empathize with their foreign brothers and sisters. The missing context creates holes which are filled in with beliefs. And in that ignorance the public remains, ripe for manipulation by the partisan press and of course, demagogues.
That’s why American journalism’s hidden nationalism is the biggest threat to democracy – it oversimplifies and leaves the people ignorant. And ignorant people simply gravitate toward what they believe, which deepens polarization. And because most American journalism exists within a for-profit business structure, the journalism itself becomes more partisan, because that’s what brings in the views, the clicks, the bucks.
This podcast is a production of the Quinnipiac University Podcast Studio. Our producer is Grace McGuire, our social media coordinator is Jillian Catalano, and our videographer is Jake McCarthy. The music was composed and performed by host David DesRoches.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
It's not so much what American journalists write that threatens democracy. No, it’s more about what they don't write -- context. This lack of context is what perpetuates American propaganda. Journalists might not be waving American flags and talking about freedom and democracy openly, but they are certainly doing that subversively, by omitting the context and withholding the whole truth.
And when we don’t tell the whole truth, journalists end up as unwitting regime propagandists. Who suffers as a result? Everyone. Democracy also suffers because the people remain uninformed and unable to empathize with their foreign brothers and sisters. The missing context creates holes which are filled in with beliefs. And in that ignorance the public remains, ripe for manipulation by the partisan press and of course, demagogues.
That’s why American journalism’s hidden nationalism is the biggest threat to democracy – it oversimplifies and leaves the people ignorant. And ignorant people simply gravitate toward what they believe, which deepens polarization. And because most American journalism exists within a for-profit business structure, the journalism itself becomes more partisan, because that’s what brings in the views, the clicks, the bucks.
This podcast is a production of the Quinnipiac University Podcast Studio. Our producer is Grace McGuire, our social media coordinator is Jillian Catalano, and our videographer is Jake McCarthy. The music was composed and performed by host David DesRoches.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
30 min