11/15-11/21 #3: How Media Affects-Hegemonic Messages

Within the section, “What media messages do to receivers”, Trenholm discusses the effect and possible change that occurs from being exposed to and absorbing these media messages and what they are saying. One of the ways that media affects audiences is through hegemonic messages that silence the powerless. In this manner, media controls what is heard and what is not, what to think and what not to think, making the audience only aware of what the powerful want the audience to see, looking and following the status quo, and not what the powerless and weak have to say or what is truth instead of misrepresentations. There are cases where the media illustrates an inaccurate picture of the world, making it seem as if what is shown in television shows are the norm. Hegemonic messages also creates a hierarchy of power, in which powerless voices stay powerless, in fear of repudiation and retaliation, thus making Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann’s Spiral of Silence, where ideas that are popular are expressed, those that are not and are of the minority remain silent.

Within hegemonic message, there are cases where the audience is left unaware of a powerless party, due to the media’s control of those voices. For instance, an incident of hegemonic messages and how messages or lack of messages affect the audience, US involvement with Laos during the Vietnam War with its massive bombings and its “secret war”. Within this secret war, despite the signing of the Geneva Treaty that made Laos a neutral country during the Vietnam War, the US went ahead with their secret plans to deal with possible infiltration of the Communist half of Vietnam that was backed by the Soviet Union. By their actions, they left the indigenous populations of Laos to deal with thousands of bombs that they are still dealing with after a few decades, and most of the population left unknowing of this poor and despairing situation. In fact, the US would not be aware of it without the presence of incoming refugees from Laos within the US.