Unified Front Against Mainstream Media By: Reza Bahar

Tehran, Jan 28, IRNA - The global public opinion is shaped to a large extent by the mainstream media that never stop to set new standards, rules and values, but it is the responsibility of independent media to stop this trend by focusing on issues kept out of the global attention. The media outlets in the East also tend to be overshadowed by the mainstream media in the West. The western media have their own agenda and sometimes they manage to impose this agenda on independent media. Sometimes even poor news stories magnified by the media in the West find their way in the global news headlines. This is while, far more sensitive news issues attract less attention or suffer total blackout, despite the fact that many of them are among major problems in the East and across the world and they need to be directly addressed by the media. Today, the crash of a recreational plane in the United States leaving two people dead, seems to be more important than a school bus accident in the same continent, say Bolivia, with more than 47 children dead. In the same way, people tend to be more interested to follow news of a passenger plane skidding off runway causing some injuries or possibly deaths, as the news story is relayed by almost every news outlet, East and West. Sure enough, such news items have their own values. Yet, there are few media outlets in the world that focus on global problems like hunger, famine or civilian deaths caused by wars, internal displacements, blockades and sanctions. For example, the socio-economic consequences of sanctions imposed by the world powers on independent nations, receives little, if not any, media coverage. There are still many new-born babies in Iraq who suffer strange illnesses in the aftermath of a 2003 US-led invasion of the Middle-eastern country. Many of these babies are never treated and they even succumb to death, but who cares? The mainstream media in the West tend to turn a blind eye on such predicaments. Very few media in the western world tell its audience about the number of women, men or children dying globally every second mostly as a result of crises caused by the West. No doubt, people are people. But under a heavy media assault, the global opinion is redirected to attach more importance to some news and forget about other mainly newsworthy issues. And this is done mainly through mechanisms employed by the mainstream media. While all the media outlets have their own policies and goals, and of course the bias to achieve their ends, yet many of them, especially the mainstream media in the West, have portrayed themselves as news sources that are quite free from bias. Though there are exceptions, but many media vehicles in the West feed the globe with biased, calculated and often exaggerated messages by relying on psychological techniques and state-of-the-art technologies. The independent media in the East should be aware of this covered-up bias and never forget that they are not going to relay messages sent by the mainstream media. They should remember that they must have their own say if they are going to exert their influence on the world developments. The monopoly of the western mainstream media should be broken and a unified news front should be established by the eastern media vehicles based on commonalities. By achieving this, the media in the East would be able to have a due role in defining the global information road-map and bringing global attention to the pressing neglected issues./end