The Dewey Liptmann Play Analysis

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Journalists as Democratic Agents & Keepers of Meaning (The Dewey-Lippmann Debate)

“The majority is never right! Never, I say!
That’s one of the social lies a free, thinking man is bound to rebel against.
Who make up the majority in any given country? Is it the wise men, or the fools? ….” (Ibsen, 1882)
The above question was posed by Dr. Stark, the protagonist in a popular Norwegian play by Henrik Ibsen. It not only reflects the mood of people in the end 19th – early 20th century, but can also be called the basic conceptual question that spurred the debate between Walter Lippmann, a journalist in his 20’s and the philosopher John Dewey, in the early 1920s. Dewey believed that human beings had the potential to make intelligent judgment. However, Lippmann thought of this faith in the public as unrealistic and idealistic. This difference in opinion reflects the split in twentieth century liberal democratic thought into participative and elitist factions. This also helps us understand the role and aims of citizenship in a modern democracy. (Myers, 2001) Most importantly, this debate on the role of communication in society and the elitist vis-a-vis participatory approach to journalism started by Lippmann and Dewey is still valid even today. In his book “Public Opinion”, Lippmann critiqued the model of democracy where the general public had power in their own hands.
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He supported the establishment of an elite body of experts who would help people see the real, accurate pictures of the world. Lippmann argued that people’s exposure to the world is limited. The information people receive through other sources, media, opinions, educations, and beliefs create “picture in their heads” or a “pseudo-environment” which affect their judgments. Hence, to know what the real world is like, people often resort to maps of the world. Again, Lippmann points out that maps (or guidance) provided by random sources can be tools of propaganda. In other words, the creator of the maps can affect the public’s decisions as well. Further, Lippmann in his book ‘The Phantom Public’ expressed his doubts about the very existence of ‘public’ capable to cause social change. Thus, at the level of the nation, public opinion is either manufactured or phantom (McAllister, 2012). The extensive use of propaganda in our past shows us that Lippmann’s argument is indeed true. While corporate propaganda often entices consumers to invest in certain products/ companies, war time propaganda has proved to be highly successful in motivating people to fight against a nation they have no personal grudge against. Recent religious propagandas have succeeded in persuading people to sacrifice their lives to promote or protect a certain ideology. In this case, can Lippmann’s recommendation to solve the problem hold true in today’s world? Lippmann advocated the establishment of elite bodies of experts who would take data from the outside world, synthesize and then give the public an accurate picture of the world. The public would be passive receivers, spectators of the pre-synthesized content. John Dewey, through a review of ‘Public Opinion’ in The New Republic (1922), and later his book The Public and its Problems (1927), expressed that the creation of such a power block is fundamentally undemocratic. He did not support the idea of aristocratic administrators because he thought they would become a self-interested power block in their own right. (Bybee, 1997). Thinking about the world at present, media does the job of the ‘elite-body’ proposed by Lippmann. …show more content…
They claim to provide their audience with the ‘real’ picture of the world. But an interesting question is “What’s really real” (Babbie, 2004)? A postmodern view says that all that’s “real” are the images that are derived through some point of view. A country having a single media channel (i.e. a single elite body disseminating synthesized information) has often been an indicator of propaganda/ suppression of right to information of people. History has showed us that most dictatorial regimes have at first tried to censor, then take over media. As Sir John Dalberg-Actonhad said “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Thus the power of being the single source of information in a country can lead the public to be manipulated. Dewey was convinced that public had the potential to make the correct decision. But he agreed with Lippmann that the public need help to understand and make informed choices in the democracy. Hence, experts

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