Media & PR

"If those in charge of our society - politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television - can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves." - Howard Zinn

Information control is big business these days. Corporations have generated vast power and profits aiming to persuade both the general public, journalists and politicians to believe and regurgitate pro-corporate ideology. The systems in place for this are complex and varied, but they can be roughly categorised into Media, Public Relations and Lobbying. The mainstream media, dominated by corporations and dependent on advertising revenue, has pro-corporate biases inscribed into its fundamental structure, yet often claims to be neutral. Meanwhile, powerful and pervasive public relations firms ensure that pro-corporate stories and perspectives dominate journalistic output. They and other corporate lobbying agencies ensure that corporate-friendly messages are given preferential treatment within the corridors of power. The upshot is a climate in which market dominance over ever increasing aspects of our lives is often accepted as common-sense, rather than challenged as a cause of suffering and inequality. Over the years, Corporate Watch has produced articles, company profiles and reports which analyse the ways in which pro-corporate messages infiltrate and influence public opinion and political decision-making, and the manipulative effects this has on our supposedly 'democratic' system.