Reading The Bewildered Herd To Understand

[Jim]

For the first time, The Bewildered Herd is a recently published book
that contains all that should be known about the media's orientation
of the public mind in democratic societies, why this manipulation
takes place, and in which manner. The Bewildered Herd does not only
analyse the media's current functions, forms, interests, and tactics
in the modern democratic society but it also traces and discusses the
various transformations that this increasingly powerful social actor
has gone through.
The case studies used in The Bewildered Herd are both unequal and
unique in their nature, depth, and revelations. They compare the media
coverage in two of the world's leading democracies (The United States
and France) of some of the world's most important armed conflicts (The
Gulf War, Bosnia, Iraq, Chechnya, The Middle East, Rwanda). It
analyses both countries' national, economic, cultural, and social
interests as well as their respective media's coverage of these
conflicts and reveals how public perceptions are affected by this
coverage, and how the agendas of both the media and the political
establishment are best served by this manipulation of public opinion
in democratic societies.
Mechanisms and tactics used in conditioning the public mind and
orienting its opinion are extensively revealed and analysed in a
manner that is so comprehensive in its approach and in its
explanations.