The role of the media in facing the global economic crisis

After the 2008 crisis, some studies have suggested that the media concealed much information about the accounting scandals of American corporations, and did not do their part to critique the capitalist system.

The collapse of Silicon Valley (SVB) marks the beginning of a new global economic crisis that could affect the entire global system, and all countries of the world are feeling threatened; here we are talking about how the media contributed to shaping this crisis.

Navigating this context requires great courage from media scholars who can demonstrate that the media's bias towards capitalism has reduced its ability to warn people of the dangers and expose the disadvantages of the capitalist system.

After the 2008 crisis, some studies indicated that the media concealed a lot of information about the accounting scandals of American companies, and did not do its part in criticizing the capitalist system, revealing the risks to this world due to the arrogance of this system, the bias of the media, and its inability to criticize it.

A study of the content provided by Western media shows that they focus on descriptive coverage of economic events, and that they do not provide a critical view of these events, despite the clarity of the negatives resulting from them.

Fulfilling the right of the masses to know

The media's bias towards the capitalist system has constituted restrictions on the freedom of media professionals to seek and disseminate facts; in many cases, journalists knew the facts but were unable to publish them; this opens the door to thinking about media freedom and fighting against the restrictions imposed by the capitalist system on media professionals to prevent them from carrying out their most important function, which is to fulfill the public's right to know.

One of the most important consequences of the media's bias towards the capitalist system has been that media coverage of economic events has become dry, boring, and gloomy, and does not attract public attention; the focus is on stock and bond prices, corporate profits, and presenting a positive image of the capitalist system that makes people feel safe; while risks surround their money; and suddenly devour their savings and turn them into poor.

Because the media tries to hide their bias towards capitalism in the garb of objectivity, they rely excessively on experts in the field of the market, most of whom have strong ties to the companies that use them to defend the capitalist system and deceive the masses, and companies often make these experts famous and turn them into stars and present them to the media to answer questions with simplified answers that contribute to misleading the public by giving a false impression of security, trust and the absence of risks to the banking system.

Reliance on official sources

Media professionals prefer to rely on official sources, so governments and companies have developed the capabilities of these sources in providing information to media professionals and answering their questions in order to achieve the interests of the institutions to which they belong, and they hide much of the information that the public needs.

Reliance on official sources is a bias towards capitalism, as the content they provide is more like propaganda, as they always aim to defend institutions and companies and form a positive image of them.

Media professionals believe that relying on these sources is safer, as they are not subject to sanctions or criticism from their superiors, even if the information is proven to be incorrect, and the official source is reliable in the eyes of media professionals. Therefore, official sources have played an important role in reducing the quality of the content provided by the media, as this content is based on data and information that are manufactured to give the impression of the stability and strength of the financial system.

The role of public relations agencies

Public relations agencies have been able to develop their capabilities in producing content that attracts the public and presenting it to the media, so many media institutions dispense with many professional journalists and publish stories and news provided by public relations agencies.

This negatively affected the psychology of journalists and prompted many of them to seek employment opportunities in public relations agencies that give them salaries that far exceed what they receive from their media institutions, and some of them combined work in media and public relations. This, in turn, has led to an increased bias of the media towards the capitalist system, and the inability to publish facts that reveal the disadvantages of this system.

Media without criticism

For example, the Western media did not criticize many decisions that negatively affect the global economy, such as the rate hike decisions, which were among the most important factors that led to the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank and the increase in unemployment and poverty in the world.

Nor have these methods done their job in clarifying the risks resulting from the accumulation of debts on the countries of the world, despite the clear fact that these countries will eventually fail to pay these debts, whose interest accumulates to exceed the national income of some countries, which leads them to bankruptcy in the end.

The rise in interest rates pushes many companies and countries to bankruptcy after the rates of poverty and unemployment increase, and this poses a threat to global stability, as famines are coming and the poor will not bear the bitterness of living long and will rush to achieve global change that will reach all countries of the world, regardless of the strength of their economy.

These are some of the results of the media's bias towards capitalism and its abandonment of its responsibility to criticize decisions that do not take into account social aspects and protect the poor, and thus the media bears responsibility for the global economic crisis, because it only published news and did not explain the risks resulting from it to the public.

The guard dog is asleep

One of the most important functions of the media is to protect societies from deviations and corruption, and to warn them of risks and disasters so that they can confront them by thinking of new solutions to problems, a function that the West calls the "guard dog."

There is no doubt that capitalism misleading people in order to plunder their wealth and subjugate them is one of the most important forms of corruption; but the media has not been able to disseminate information about capitalist corruption, and has abandoned its investigative function, and this affects the future of the media because the masses have become aware that capitalism has used the media to deceive and mislead them.

Where is the free discussion?

Managing free debate on all issues of society is one of the most important functions of the media, but these media manage a lot of discussions on issues that do not concern societies, and lead to distraction and distraction of the masses such as gender and transgender issues, while they could not conduct a dialogue about the social responsibility of states and corporations or the dangers of capitalism's cruelty, brutality, plundering of people's wealth or the risks of interest.

This means that capitalism's control of the media has had a lot of negative consequences on societies' ability to create, innovate, and produce new ideas and solutions to problems.

Democracy and Capital

One of the most important things that Western countries boast about in the world is that they manage their affairs through elected democratic institutions that discuss public affairs without restrictions. Media freedom is one of the most important pillars of democracy, but these institutions have been unable to protect societies from the dangers of capitalism's brutality and cruelty, or to discuss issues of corruption and interest rates, so the media could not rely on the representatives of the people, who enjoy immunity, to publish facts about capitalist corruption.

This illustrates the strength of the relationship between media freedom and the ability of democratic institutions (parliament) to discuss issues of societies, so has parliament lost its freedom because of capitalism's control over it just as the media has lost its freedom?

The economic crisis is a severe test for Western democracy and media freedom, as the masses want freedom for the media to reveal to them the facts that protect their rights, and avoid falling into poverty and hunger, and when people lose their savings, they will accuse the media of misleading and falsifying their consciousness.

Capitalist arrogance over peoples

Media researchers are aware that there is a state of Western capitalist arrogance that has affected the ability of the media to search for new solutions to problems in other civilizations, so Western societies have succumbed to addressing economic problems by raising interest rates completely, and weak countries have resorted to borrowing from banks and the International Monetary Fund, sinking into debt and its interests, and the whole world is waiting for it to declare bankruptcy as the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank was declared.

This Western capitalist arrogance has restricted the media's ability to disseminate new ideas, or to conduct a free debate on issues of debt, poverty, famine, and the fall of states, and has constrained the public sphere, so that political and intellectual forces have not been able to present new programs to save the world, which is rapidly destroying itself with the cruelty, greed and arrogance of capitalism.

Western countries created the problem by thinking that the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union meant a decisive victory for capitalism and the end of history, and that America could do whatever it wanted and manage the world's conflicts with its hard power.

But the question that Western scholars must think of a new answer to is: Will people revolt against Western arrogance and the cruelty and brutality of capitalism in search of new solutions to their problems and rebuild societies on new foundations?

A new phase in the fight for media freedom

People need to start a new phase of the struggle to protect media freedom, and for media professionals to participate with their people in building media systems that provide knowledge, manage free debate, protect societies from deviations and corruption, and express the will of the people.

Freeing the media from the bias of capitalism, opening the public space to discuss new ideas, and encouraging people to create and innovate by disseminating new ideas in the media, can increase people's capacities to face the global economic crisis that threatens the entire world system and leads to an increase in poverty and hunger.

The world needs new theories that form the basis for the liberation of the media from the authorities and capitalism to express the will of the people and to publish new civilizational projects to save the world.