The invisible enemy: representing labour in a corporate media order

Bekken, Jon (author)

Substantial research documents the central role of the U.S. media in delegitimizing and marginalizing the labour movement. U.S. journalists cover labour only rarely, and then through the prism of a "public" interest frame that submerges class relations, privileges commodities over the workers who produce them, and implicitly supports capital over the workers whose actions threaten to (or do) disrupt the ordinary flow of commerce. This coverage is deeply rooted in the patterns of thinking taught in academic journalism programs. Leading American journalism textbooks rarely suggest seeking information or comment from labour leaders or union members, even for stories in which unions would be deeply involved. When textbooks ask students to writearticles about hiring freezes and lay-offs based solely on press releasesor "notes" from news conferences by corporate officials, students are being taught a clear lesson about whose perspective matters. Journalism textbooks largely ignore the vast majority of the population - those who must work for a living. Workers and their unions exist only on the margins, as a disruptive force that inconveniences the general public. That reporters trained in this way go on to ignore labour concerns and perspectives in their own reporting is hardly surprising.

• Language: English
• Work type: Not categorized
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Year: 2005
• Number of pages: Str. 71-84
• Numbering: Vol. 12, no. 1
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-76411
• UDC: 070
• ISSN on article: 1318-3222
• COBISS.SI-ID: 24234589
• Publication date in RUL: 21.12.2015

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Javnost = The public
• Shortened title: Javnost
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis, European Institute for Communication and Culture
• ISSN: 1318-3222
• COBISS.SI-ID: 40119808

Secondary language

• Language: Unknown
• Title: Nevidni sovražnik: predstavljanje dela v korporacijski medijski ureditvi

Abstract

Raziskovanje razkriva pomembno vlogo ameriških medijev v delegitimizaciji in marginalzaciji delavskega gibanja. Ameriški novinarji le redko obravnavajo delavska vprašanja, in tedaj skozi prizmo "javnega" interesa, ki so mu podrejeni razredni odnosi, privilegira blago in ne njegovih proizvajalcev ter implicitno podpira kapital proti delavcem, katerih delovanje ogroža vsakdanji blagovni promet. Taka usmeritev je zakoreninjena v mišljenjskih vzorcih, ki se jih študentje učijo v univerzitetnih novinarskih programih. Vodilni ameriški novinarski učbeniki celo takrat, kadar gre za zgodbe, v katere so sindikati pomembno vpleteni, ne svetujejo iskanja informacij ali komentarjev med delavskimi voditelji ali člani sindikatov. Če učbeniki zahtevajo od študentov, da pišejo članke o omejitvah zaposlovanja ali odpuščanju le na osnovi zapiskov z novinarskih konferenc, ki jih organizirajo predstavniki podjetij, je jasno, katera perspektiva je pomembna. Novinarski učbeniki zanemarjajo večino prebivalstva - tiste, ki živijo od svojega dela. Delavci in sindikati obstajajo le na družbenem obrobju, kot razdiralna sila, ki sproža v splošni javnosti nelagodje. Če novinarji, ki so na tak način izobraževani, pri svojem delu zanemarjajo delavska vprašanja in perspektive, ni presenetljivo.