The idea of a free society should be seen as a method, not an end point. The idea that “power tends to corrupt” is a guide to action. Policies, technologies and organisational arrangements can be judged to see whether they contribute to equality or inequality of power.
This can easily be applied to information. Information is a part of all systems of power. Top bureaucrats try to control information as part of their control over subordinates and clients. Corporations try to control information through trade secrets and patents. Militaries try to control information using the rationale of “national security.” So-called freedom of information — namely, public access to documents produced in bureaucracies — is a threat to top bureaucrats.
In a society where not everyone can read and write, literacy is a form of power and campaigns for mass literacy are a threat to ruling elites. In a society where employees cannot speak freely due to fears about job security, bosses hold power and campaigns for workers’ control are a threat to top managers. In a society where a few owners and editors control systems of mass communication, campaigns for multiple independent avenues for publication are a threat to elites.
This book applies Acton’s insight about the corruptions of power to various areas dealing with information and communication. I don’t cover every topic but try to illustrate some ways to proceed.
The mass media are inherently undemocratic because a small number of individuals control what is communicated to a large audience (chapter 2).
Patents and copyrights give control over use of information to corporations and individuals. This power is commonly used to benefit the rich and exploit the poor (chapter 3).
Surveillance, which boils down to gathering information about someone else without their knowledge or consent, is a method for social control (chapter 4).
Employees do not have free speech (chapter 5).
Defamation law is regularly used to suppress free speech (chapter 6).
The structure of research organisations, including universities, makes knowledge mainly useful to governments, corporations, professions and researchers themselves (chapter 7).
Ideas that will be useful for popular understanding and action need to be simple in essence — though not just any simple idea will serve the purpose (chapter 8).
People need to learn to think for themselves rather than accept the ideas of famous intellectuals (chapter 9).
Information plays a role in nearly every field of human activity, from art to industry, and all of these are subject to the corruptions of power. Challenging information-related systems of power is one avenue for social change. But it’s only one of many possible avenues. Bringing about a just society involves more than achieving a goal involving knowledge and communication, such as equal access to information. Also needed are changes in personal relations, economics, military systems and many other areas. Challenging the corruptions of information power is just one way to proceed — but it is an important and fascinating one.
Some rough definitions
Information is data that has been processed, organised or classified into categories.
Knowledge is facts and principles believed to be true.
Wisdom is good judgement of what is useful for achieving something worthwhile.
Information without knowledge isn’t much use, and knowledge without wisdom isn’t much use. More information isn’t necessarily a good thing without the capacity to interpret, understand and use it. Nevertheless, the focus here is on power to control information, which has consequences for developing knowledge and wisdom.
2. Beyond mass media
Mass media are inherently corrupting. A small number of owners and editors exercise great power over what is communicated to large numbers of people. Mass media should be replaced by participatory media organised as networks, such as telephone and computer networks. Strategies to supersede mass media include changing one’s own media consumption patterns, participating in alternative media and using nonviolent action against the mass media.
Complaints about the mass media are commonplace. To begin, there is the low quality of many of the programmes and articles. There is the regular portrayal of violence, given an attention out of proportion with its frequency in everyday life. More generally, most of the mass media give much more attention to crime, deaths, disasters, wars and strife than to harmonious communities, acts of kindness and win-win conflict resolution. The mass media frequently create unrealistic fears about criminals, foreign peoples and mass protest.
“News” often is more like entertainment than information or education. News reports, especially on television, are typically given without much overt context. The latest events are described, but there is no explanation of what led up to them or caused them. Consumers of the media consequently hear a lot of facts but frequently don’t understand how they fit together. “Context” is the result of the assumptions behind the facts, and this context is all the more powerful because it is neither stated nor discussed.
Even the “facts” that are presented are often wrong or misleading. Powerful groups, especially governments and large corporations, shape the news in a range of ways, such as by providing selected information, offering access to stories in exchange for favourable coverage, spreading disinformation, and threatening reprisals.
Advertising is another powerful influence on commercial media. Advertisers influence what types of stories are presented. But more deeply, advertisements themselves shape people’s views of the world. They are a pervasive source of unreality, fostering insecurity and consumerism.
There are indeed many problems with the mass media. But some media are much better than others, judged by the criteria of accuracy, quality and independence of special interests. Most media critics seem to believe that it is possible to promote and develop enlightened, responsive, truly educative mass media. Efforts at reform can be worthwhile, but have intrinsic limits.
The problem is not with media in general, but with mass media, namely those media that are produced by relatively few people compared to the number who receive them. Most large newspapers, television and radio stations fit this description. Mass media by their nature give power to a few and offer little scope for participation by the vast majority. The power of the mass media is corrupting. The only surprise is how responsible some mass media are. Given the corruptions of power, reform of the mass media, although useful, should not be the goal. Instead, the aim should be to replace mass media by communication systems that are more participatory.
The usual approaches
Most analyses of the media assume that there are just two choices, either state control or a free market. The problem with control by the state is that control is centralised. The media of military regimes and bureaucratic socialist states are notorious for their censorship. The defenders of the “free market” argue that government-owned media, or tight regulations, are similarly noxious even in liberal democracies.
The problem with “free market” media is that they give only a very limited freedom, namely freedom for large media companies and other powerful corporate interests.[1] Everyone is “free” to own a publishing company or television station.
1
Lichtenberg, Judith. 1987. “Foundations and limits of freedom of the press,”