"Buying the War"

Note:
This is a response to Bill Moyer's documentary, "Buying the  War"(http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw/watch.html). I am looking at the contents of this film through the lens of theory: Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann's "Spiral of Silence"* and the "Agenda Setting Theory"* of Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw.


For much of my adult life I ascribed to a conservative “Christian Right” agenda  (Berlet, 2004). Concerning the war on Saddam post 911, I was appended to all that supporting the war included.  I love the New Yorker cartoon depicting a fat cheetah pollster in a trench coat holding a clipboard and pen. He is asking the housewife if she has ever owned a fur coat (Griffin, 2009, p. 377). The look on her face characterizes me post 911.I would have said “no” with enthusiasm (honestly would not have noticed it was a cheetah). Had some flag-bedecked pollster come to my door asking if I supported the war, I would have invited him for tea. 

But in the past five or six years my paradigm has shifted significantly to a broader view.  At one time Bill Moyer’s documentary, “Buying the War”, would have been to me a categorical heresy.   I still function in the same social, family, and church context and because of the stark differences that have occurred in me, I have learned to walk softly.  I don’t believe my carefulness is out of “fear of isolation” (Griffin, 2009, p. 373)  as much as reluctance to offend or labor at coercing others into joining me. I agree with Csikszentmihal and other scholars in their concern that  Noelle-Neumann focuses too narrowly in her “Spiral of Silence”* on fear as the sole cause of silence.  I believe that the few friends I have who share my political thinking have served to keep me from succumbing to the pressure to conform to these views that no longer resonate in me.

Moyer’s documentary is disturbing.  I remember my mindset as we entered the war. I was one of that large mixed group cheering Bush with no reservation. I am left feeling not just a little bit duped. I have heard about these possibilities, but had no idea the scope of it. Neumann writes of the kinds of people who “form this vocal minority that remains at the top of the spiral in defiance of threat of isolation. She calls them the “hard core and the avant-garde” (Griffin, 2009, p. 379). I don’t know how far up that spiral I have ascended in recent years, but I can look back and see I was indeed lower in the spiral for many years. I love the visual Neumann uses-- “The Downward Spiral of Silence” (Griffin, 2009, p. 378).

One of the building blocks of Noelle-Neumann’s model of public opinion is the hesitancy of individuals to voice minority views (Griffin, 2009, p. 377). In the face of exceptional support of Bush’s war plan, we see a remnant refusing to buy the argument for the war. This attests to the balance of media power and personal choice that McCombs and Shaw conclude as distinctive of the agenda-setting theory (Griffin, 2009, p. 360). Bob Simon, Jonathan Landay, Eric Boehlert , and Phil Donahue are a few mentioned in this interview who affirm that there is indeed a choice in the face of mass media noise.

But personal choice can be and is influenced by mass media.  Could it be that a default position that attests  the comfortable assumption people will choose freely is much easier than confronting  the ethics of honest motives?   These are clever people who know that “Terrorist attacks and their aftermaths are also the moments in which audiences are most vulnerable, anxious, and eager to watch” (Liebes, 1998). These “guardians of political dialogue” (Moyers, 2007)  hold a place of epic duty that was clearly ignored.

 “We look to news professionals for cues on where to focus our attention. ‘We judge as important what the media judge as important’” (Griffin, 2009, p. 359). In Moyer’s interview Bob Simon relates the methods of the “gatekeepers,”  “Just repeat it and repeat it and repeat it. Repeat Al Qaeda, Iraq. Al Qaeda, Iraq. Al Qaeda, Iraq. Just keeps it going. Keep that drum beat going. And it was effective because long after it was well established that there was no link between Al Qaeda and the government of Iraq and the Saddam regime, the polls showed that an overwhelming majority of Americans believed that Al Qaeda… that Iraq was responsible for September 11th.”  Psychologist Serge Muscovici  joins Neumann in pinning hopes on the two groups (avant- garde and the hard core) who will divest the spiral of silence of its power, but he adds another , “the committed deviants”…a minority that stands firm (Griffin, 2009, p. 379). The avant-garde are an isolated bunch. The hard –core may be subject to intolerance, but this bunch of firm-standing folks pursuing a cause may be those who interrupt that incessant drumbeat the mass media tries to pass off as truth.

*Note on the “Spiral of Silence"

A theory developed by Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann.  “The Spiral of Silence is the increasing pressure people feel to conceal their views when they think they are in the minority” (Griffin, 2009).

* Note on the "Agenda-Setting Theory"

A theory developed by journalism professors Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw that states, " The mass media have the ability to transfer the salience of issues on their news agenda to the public agenda" (Griffin, 2009).

References

Berlet, C. (2004). Guide to the Christian Right. Retrieved February 1, 2011, from Political Research Associates: http://www.publiceye.org/christian_right/cr_intro.html

Griffin, E. (2009). Communication: a first look at communication theory. New York, NY: McGraw Hill Higher Education.

Liebes, T. (1998). Television's disaster marathons: A danger to democratic processes? (T. C. Liebes, Ed.) Media, ritual, and identity.

Moyers, B. S. (2007, April 25). Buying the War. (B. Moyers, Interviewer)

 Photo credit:  http://tenniswritercoug.blogspot.com/2010/04/those-never-silenced.html