Third International Conference on Communication & Media Studies

Abstract

Today the authoritarian Right in the US seeks to undermine core norms and values of civil behavior. They target the truths and science that stand in their way, and the individuals, professions, and institutions who find and disseminate inconvenient truths. Far from being peripheral, their perversion of linguistic-symbolic intersubjectivity is central to their project of social domination. We discuss the dynamics of this new “culture war” against the integrity and independence of mainstream media. First, these attacks spring from the authoritarian personality and groupthink. Two, they demonstrate the demise of honorable, responsible conservative ideas and intellectuals, and the rise of Right-wing radical populists since Barry Goldwater. Third, they act as propaganda for mobilization (supporters) and intimidation (dissenters), and for dismantling independent intermediate institutions and counter-powers to assert full-spectrum dominance. Fourth, this unraveling of educated citizenship shows the (partial) convergence between disciplinarian forces and neoliberalism, which demands isolated and disciplined (submissive) workers and fragmented, undisciplined consumers. Fifth, they show the crises of the American project: de-institutionnalization from families to the Constitutional order, crisis of social capital and values (e.g., maleness), economic malaise, and social pathologies. Sixth, they continue America’s historical trends, notably the manufacturing of patriotism, amnesia, and consent by the elites, and the repression of dissent. Finally, they reflect the limits and contradictions of progressive ideals and Western modernity. In addition to semiology, we mobilize political psychology, critical political economy, and critical sociology to examine this crisis of mainstream media in the US today.