Re: new immanence - Chirac cheats!

Dear Steve

>As Berlusconi is himself a media tycoon aware that his pro-war stance is 
unpopular, I doubt the Italian media was imploring people to demonstrate.

These details might be a bit esotherical: I don't argue that the masses think 
what the media says, just that if an issue keeps popping up people will feel a 
need to have a position related to it simply because they know about it, which 
might actually be divergent from how the media portrays the issue. Personaly, 
I thought nothing of North Korea until I got to read (and friends who know a 
lot about it talked to me) about it. If you don't believe me, try this one: 
pick a random manifester in the next London marches and ask him or her what 
they think about the war in Chechenya (sorry, I forgot that Putin now is a 
good, peace loving, guy). As far as I can tell Italian media were rather 
neutral on the issue, in the sense that a number of means is pro and roughly 
the same number is anti...even if important dailys such as La Repubblica have 
a clear anti-war stance (and, importantly, the Vatican). The media don't form 
public opionion: people buy a paper already knowing what they want to read. 
And they know exactely what paper will tell them what they like.

>While Blair has isolated himself politically through his hawkishness, its not 
my impression that the British press actively endorses an anti-war movement.

Surprisingly, the British press is probably the most involved with the 
anti-war movement in the whole of Europe. Not even the French press, might I 
dare to say, has adopted an anti war stance as radical as parts of the UK 
media. In my opinion this could also be behind the fact that the London 
demonstrations were the most impressive - not because the media teach people 
what to think, but because of the traditional role of tabloids in the 
mobilization of masses. If you look at the images, a considerable amount of 
people were holding Daily Mirror first pages. The Daily Mirror is the second 
tabloid in the UK, with a daily circulation of well over 2 million (I suggest 
you look at their website, it can be quite funny). Recently, it has been 
feauturing articles of John Pilger on a weekly basis. I might even dare to say 
that traditionally they have been in the need of saying the opposite of what 
their main rival, The Sun, says, in order to keep their costumers...thus this 
clear anti war stance. The Guardian, with over 200.000 copies daily, is also 
anti-war. The relative dominance of the Mirror and the Sun is crucial to 
understand their respective editorial positions (if the Sun is anti euro, the 
Mirror is pro euro, and so on), and the consequent mobilization of masses. 
Moreover, the London events also need to take into consideration a more 
general frustration with Dog Dog Blair, a frustration which, as it happens, 
finds in the anti-war stance an ideal battle terrain.



>===== Original Message From Threehegemons@aol.com =====
>In a message dated 2/18/2003 8:19:42 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
Damian.Popolo@newcastle.ac.uk writes:
>
>> Yes it does. If a bucnch of people manifest because of pressures form the
>> media, and not because of a well thought critical stance, for them to shut 
up
>> it is enough for the media to shut up - just like for
>> Afghanistan (or
>> Chechenya, for that matter)
>
>I'm not sure exactly what 'the media' has been like in Europe, but in the US, 
practically the only mainstream attention the anti-war movement received 
pre-F-15 were claims that its leadership is dominated by unpatriotic 
communists and anti-semites.
> Bush actually went to court to undermine the NYC demonstration, an 
exceptional step for a US president.  Nor was the Democratic Party encouraging 
people to demonstrate.
>
>As Berlusconi is himself a media tycoon aware that his pro-war stance is 
unpopular, I doubt the Italian media was imploring people to demonstrate.
>
>While Blair has isolated himself politically through his hawkishness, its not 
my impression that the British press actively endorses an anti-war movement.
>
>Steven Sherman

Damian Popolo
PhD candidate
Newcastle University
Department of Politics
Room 301