STEEMIT as Evidence in Support of Chomsky & Herman's Propaganda Model

Earlier today I came across a post trumpeting Noam Chomsky's work on the post-secondary educational system - he is a hero of mine, although I do not subscribe exactly to his flavor of anarchism, his counter-analysis has always been highly informative - whether it be foreign policy of the United States government, the military-industrial complex, and the borderline fascism that exists in the relationship between MASSIVE government and BIG business.

THE GOAL OF THIS POST is not to slam The Whales - they are just doing what comes naturally, to people with a lot of resources! It is a message to everyone else, or the rest of "us" rather, imploring them behave as if The Whales do not exist - to find our own voices and not waste time chasing after the gold at the end of the constantly-moving rainbow. Diversity is the key to the future of STEEMIT - only when people feel they can bring 'anything' here, will we attract the wider populous. This is something The Whales also want - diversifying their votes will be a big help.

His best work, in my opinion, was done along with Edward S. Herman, presented in a book entitled "Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media" (1988), which was made into a great documentary film, "Manufacturing Consent - Noam Chomsky and the Media" (1999).

Propaganda Model

Chomsky and Herman present a Propaganda Model in which they describe how systemic bias within the media, supports policies of market-oriented western democracies, which heavily favor the goals of the elite class - the success of the model is the engineered consent of the population for said policies, allowing them to be implemented or perpetuated. The method by which this bias is instilled, and enforced, is not overt and dictatorial, but rather atmospheric - there is little conscious collusion as such, but rather casual adherence to hierarchical expectations. Prior to the final 'news product' being packaged for mass consumption, it must first pass through filters - Chomsky & Herman defined these as Ownership, Funding, Sourcing, Flak, and Fear.

Not wanting to bite the hand that feeds, reporters (posters) fall in-line and present stories that would, if there was such a process, be passed on to circulation as "Officially Approved".

STEEMIT Filters

If we paint some broad strokes and label the players and processes found on STEEMIT, then @dan & @ned together with 'The Whales' would become our Ownership Filter, and they also, because of the way that rewards are distributed, represent the Funding Filter. The mass of STEEMIT users can be looked upon as reporters, chasing after the carrots and avoiding being hit with the stick, or worse yet, being ignored completely.

Ownership & Funding
The creators of STEEMIT are very open about their political & economic philosophy, which I myself am mostly in agreement with. Many of the so-called "Whales" of STEEMIT, are here because they share those views. Together, they have brought other like-minded, high-profile individuals into the STEEM Universe, and they have all done very well as a result. When this 'tier' of STEEMIT members Upvote posts they demonstrate that it falls within their favor, when they ignore, or actively DownVote something, the work is deemed to have no value to them.

Sourcing
This refers to the echo chamber, or circle jerk as it has been called here on STEEMIT. This is posters agreeing with, quoting, fully supporting, and then echoing other posters, all of whom are behaving in a way that is looked upon favorably by the Owners & Funders. Alternative perspectives are not voiced, and if so they are quickly shot down, or ignored.

Flak
Negative feedback, downvoting, muting, anything that hurts a poster's reputation - this is all "Flak", and it is only natural that a poster would seek to avoid such things, especially when it greatly limits their ability to earn - if there is no way to earn anything substantial, there is no reason to participate, and thus the voice is silenced.

Fear
I have two words for this one .. "Tone Vay". You see, in societies where group-think is desirable, official enemies & external threats, are quickly found. Anyone who 'has concerns' about STEEMIT, about the eco-system overall, is demonized - threats to our very future! It is one thing to say such things from the outside looking in, but see the reaction to anyone who does this 'here' - they are nullified, and exited from all conversations as soon as they open their mouths.

The average STEEMIT user sees & feels all of this, and attempts to please, to echo, to mimic, in order to gain "approval". This is why we see a great many posts tagged - anarchy, anarchism, voluntaryism, etc., and the contents of these posts, in many cases, very obvious regurgitations of ideas and perspectives posted previously, presented without the emotional impact of a true believer.

Has a 'socialism' tag ever been used on STEEMIT? What about gun control advocacy? What about anything praising President Obama? Certainly, there are people on STEEMIT that have these beliefs/thoughts/feelings (not myself mind you, but others) - but because they know that they have no hope of getting any substantial support (aka $$$$), they will very rarely, if at all be seen or heard from.