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MSC 62nd Student Conference on National Affairs

“Against All Enemies, Foreign and Domestic: Securing the Homeland”

Texas A&M University

Delegate Research Information

Round Table #15

“Good Morning America:

Deciphering the Hidden Agendas of the Media”

Facilitator: Rolando Santos

------This delegate research information is not intended to be a comprehensive assessment of your assigned round table topic but rather a starting point to help launch your own personal investigations into the various associated issues. It is encouraged, if not expected, that your policy proposals will be inclusive of aspects pertaining to your round table topic that are not covered in this research compilation. You, your facilitator, your round table host, and your fellow roundtable delegates are all responsible for crafting a policy proposal that takes this into consideration.

Example Policy Proposal - SCONA 61 Winner

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To: The Honorable Susan Rice Office Held: National Security Advisor From: Spencer Allen, Christopher Beveridge, John Breland, Karch Calkins, Johnny Childers, Rachel Clink, Zachariah Fares, Brian Fuentes, Adel Hussain, Sebastian King, Isaac Lee, Emily Otto, Joni Taylor Facilitator: COL Chris Albus Subject: Counteracting the Allure of Jihad Date: 20 February 2016

Introduction The allure of Jihad is a growing national security problem. There is an increased ability of terrorist groups to inspire those living within the U.S. to commit acts of domestic terrorism. This complex problem requires the development of a counter-narrative policy, based on American values, to limit the allure of Jihad. This is done by partnering with the Muslim community and interest groups and initiating a proactive, timely, and relevant informational campaign.

Background Combating Jihad within the is a key tenet of the 2015 National Security Strategy (NSS). Key NSS components for combating the allure of Jihad include: ● “… collective action with responsible partners, and increased efforts to prevent the growth of violent extremism and radicalization that drives increased threats.” ● “... address the underlying conditions that can help foster violent extremism …” ● “... supporting alternatives to extremist messaging.”1

Together, these points offer a foundation to build a feasible, acceptable, and suitable strategy based on partnerships and a comprehensive informational campaign. A 2007 New York Police Department investigation identified a four step process describing how a person progresses from an average citizen to a Jihadist (Figure 1).2 The progression moves through pre-radicalization, self-identification, indoctrination, and finally into jihadization. Pre- radicalization occurs before the individual is exposed to radical Islam. In self-identification, the individual begins to relate more with the radical Islamic ideology than with an ideology of moderation and peace. Indoctrination occurs when the individual believes their anti-Western violent radical Islamic ideology is justified. Finally, jihadization occurs when the individual begins to act on those beliefs.3

1 "National Security Strategy." (2015): 9. The White House. Feb. 2015. Web. 19 Feb. 2016. 2 Precht, Tomas. Home Grown Terrorism and Islamist Radicalisation in Europe. Publication. Danish Ministry of Justice, 2007. Web. 19 Feb. 2016. 3 ibid.

Figure 1: Four-step process of Radicalization.4 Salafism is a form of radical Islam

Supporting Argument Analysis The allure of Islamic inspired homegrown terrorism stems from an exploitation of the human need for personal significance and cognitive closure5. Individuals seeking a sense of certainty and the desire to gain a “larger-than-life” significance are susceptible to an extremist ideology that provides a black and white view of the world. Extremist ideology purports the notion that it holds all the answers. The proponents of such an ideology advertise themselves as heroes and martyrs. Dr. Kruglanski, a professor from the University of Maryland and a social psychologist, has conducted intensive research regarding the psychology behind terrorist recruitment. He concluded that combating terrorism requires replacing the glamour of Jihad with an alternative glamour. This involves enacting a policy that focuses on turning the psychological on Islamic-inspired extremism.6 This research indicates a psychological vulnerability that can be exploited. As such, this policy targets that vulnerability which is located in between the steps of pre-radicalization and self-identification. Through counter-narrative initiatives the U.S. can supplant Jihadist narratives.

Recommendations The first step of providing a counter-narrative involves partnerships with Muslim community leaders and interest groups. Political leaders will engage in open dialogue with the Muslim community and build strong working relationships, creating a unified front addressing the issues. Muslim leaders will be invited to address governing bodies and have a role in the implementation of counter-narratives strategies. In reaching out to Muslim community leaders, the United States will develop a counter-narrative that builds a stronger position for Muslims in the fabric of the American Story. This will lessen the possibility of those who would feel disenfranchised with society, making them more susceptible to the Jihadist message. Similarly, a

4 England. Youth Justice Board. Preventing Religious Radicalisation and Violent Extremism. By Kris Christmann. 2012. Web. 19 Feb. 2016. 5 Kruglanski, Arie W. “Psychology Not Theology: Overcoming ISIS’ Secret Appeal.” E-International Relations. 28 Oct. 2014. Web. 19 Feb. 2016. 6 Sagl, Lauren. "Dr. Arie Kruglanski Discusses Psychology Behind Terrorist Recruitment." National Consortium of the Study of Terrorism and the Response to Terrorism. 29 Oct. 2014. Web. 19 Feb. 2016.

partnership with American interest groups for educational outreach should be created to promote public education of the tenets of Islam to the rest of the American public. Doing so mitigates stereotypes and creates a more educated and accepting public that effectively integrates Muslims into American society. The second step of this policy involves implementing a widespread and timely informational campaign to counter the Jihadist message of an inevitable clash between Islam and the West. Using cutting edge social media and other informational vehicles, the U.S. administers an informational campaign which disrupts the Jihadist decision-making process. By getting in front of the media cycle or “beating them to the punch”, the U.S. will counter the extremist claim that a cultural and religious war is justified between Islam and the West. In order to defeat the inflammatory rhetoric of extremist ideology, public leaders need to unite and develop a common stance. Socio-cultural differences can be distorted to feed extremist propaganda. This united stance must be communicated early and often at all levels, from federal to local. Furthermore, the United States should exert its influence in the proactive messaging of the American narrative. Extremists use the media to incite fear and project their message. The United States needs to counter these by communicating events that highlight success, rather than those that focus on purely negative subjects. Leaders must also reach out to media outlets and project these messages to the public at every possible occasion. In conjunction with news media influence, the United States needs to implement a more prominent presence on social media. Such objectives are achieved through adapting counter- narratives to the specific messages from extremist accounts. By monitoring the public activity of the extremists, the United States ensures the Jihadists do not have an uncontested platform. Lastly, humor is a very powerful tool utilized to present extremist messages and ideology as ridiculous. This helps delegitimize their messages and undermines their ability to influence. There is a degree of risk associated with these options. Table 1 presents several of these risks, prioritized from high to low. These should be taken into consideration by decision makers before implementation.

Table 1: Risk Assessment

Risk Context Risk Level

Ineffective anti- An ethnocentric anti-jihad campaign may High Jihad campaign become counterproductive and lead to an attraction towards Jihad.

Mixing Church Developing programs that deal with educating Medium and State the public or developing relations within a specific sect of Islam may be infringing on the separation of church and state.

Negative An information campaign could be Medium connotation of misconstrued as negative propaganda which propaganda may lower public opinion of those who are distrustful of government influence.

Reduction of Liberal Muslim leaders cooperating with US Medium legitimacy of strategy may be seen as being overly- Muslim Leaders influenced or controlled by government

Public Backlash An emphasis of pro-Muslim programs may Low-Medium create an upset by some Americans which may lead to public unrest.

Inadequate Sponsoring an improper Muslim community Low screening for leader may create a platform for him/her to leadership exploit for personal gain.

Conclusion With this strategy, the United States Government can begin to counteract the allure of Jihad, a rising issue in Western society. This policy is feasible because the required informational and relational platforms are already in , acceptable due to the potential benefits outweighing the risks determined in Table 1, and suitable due to the interconnectedness of the target audience via social networks, community ties, and other mediums. Partnering with Muslim communities and interest groups, as well as initiating an information campaign, will build an effective counter- narrative policy based on American values to limit the allure of Jihad.

Actors, Terms, Current Events, Newsmedia

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http://www.ctn-politics.com/censoring-reality-how-google-and-facebook-have-silenced- the-american-people-from-the-truth/#.V3vInerPWD4. #This is a very long (but interesting) article by someone who personally experienced bias from both Google and and seeks to expose general bias. It is from the point of view of a supporter, and will probably take 20-30 minutes to read. It analyzes both of Google and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook.

•News Corp+: Each of these companies are owned by , News Corp+21st Century Fox is one of the 6 media conglomerates that control about 90% of the media in the United States. Split apart into two separate companies in 2013, assets of these companies include , , , 20th Century Fox, the Endemol Shine Group, FX, , National Geographic, HarperCollins book publishing, the , and Dow Jones and Company (which includes ). •Disney: Disney controls an enormous amount of media that Americans take in, and it is one of the 6 media conglomerates that control about 90% of the media in the United States. Here is a non-comprehensive list of assets owned by Mickey Mouse: Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar, Lucasfilm Ltd., Marvel, Walt Disney Records, Hollywood Records, Disney Parks and Resorts, Disney Channel, ESPN, ABC, ABC News, A&E Networks, and ABC Family. Disney is often accused of having a liberal bias7, and is extremely influential in the lives of most Americans starting from early childhood development. •CBS: CBS is another one of the major 6 media conglomerates, and controls CBS Television Stations, CBS News, Showtime, CBS Sports, CBS Radio, and other far reaching platforms. In 2001 Bernard Goldberg caused controversy for the company when he wrote the book Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distorts the News. •Time Warner: Time Warner is another major media conglomerate, and controls assets such as HBO, TBS, TruTV, Cartoon Network, and Warner Bros.

7http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2013/03/disney-ceo-defends-abc-espn-against-shareholders- complaints-of-liberal-bias-158728

•Comcast: Comcast (formerly owned by GE), is one of the major media conglomerates. Assets they control include NBC Universal, the Weather Channel, Telemundo, Universal Studios, A&E, and NBC News. •Viacom: Another major media company, Viacom controls outlets such as MTV, Nick Junior, BET, and Paramount Pictures. •CNN: CNN is a news website and cable channel that had a feud with now President Donald Trump during the campaign. It was repeatedly accused of disseminating by conservatives. One of the most controversial actions taken by CNN recently was the reporting on the 35 page report about Trump that Buzzfeed then released which was full of inaccurate, unsubstantiated information. Additionally, CNN controversially published a report which detailed the scenario of the assassination of President-Elect Trump, Vice President-Elect Pence, Speaker Ryan, and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate at the inauguration. The report stated that an Obama appointee would then become the President, and there was an immediate backlash across the spectrum because of the report’s . •Facebook: Facebook is the world’s largest social network, and it has about 1.71 billion active monthly users worldwide.8 Facebook has been accused of blatantly censoring political pages with a message of “We removed the following post below because it doesn’t follow the Facebook Community Standards.” Overseas in countries such as Germany Facebook has blatantly censored any criticism of the migrant crisis, but in the United States politically oriented pages have been removed as well (though they are often reinstated after backlash.) In addition to this, Facebook also has a “trending” section that supposedly presents users with the top trending stories, but it was recently exposed by Breitbart that the stories that showed up as “trending” were actually under direct human control. Stories were selected to be displayed based on what the team decided was “newsworthy”, and in the scandal Facebook actually fired its entire news team to avoid investigation.9 According to Pew, roughly 30% of Americans use Facebook as a trusted source of news, so Facebook can have a tremendous impact on how informed the American population is, and what issues the population cares about at the moment.10 Facebook also has been working on customizing news feeds of users.

8 http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/by-the-numbers-17-amazing-facebook-stats/ 9http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/08/27/entire-facebook-trending-news-team-fired-following-breitbart- coverage/ 10 http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/09/24/how-social-media-is-reshaping-news/

•Mark Zuckerberg: Creator and owner of Facebook. Zuckerberg is worth over 50 billion dollars, is a staunch supporter of , and leans heavily liberal on most issues. •Alphabet: Google’s parent company controls hundreds of different businesses under its enormous umbrella, but Google is the most influential and most important business under Alphabet. Started by Sergei Brin and in the 1990’s, directs about 60% of the world’s internet traffic, and globally 2.8 trillion searches are made annually on the platform. Google has been found guilty in Europe of using its search results to promote its own companies, and was documented to have been supporting Hillary Clinton in 2016 Presidential race with its search results.11 Google also has an extremely close relationship with the White House, with their lobbyist visiting the White House over 128 times. •Twitter: Twitter is one of the most-used social media websites in the world, and is an easy form of communication between posters and anyone who chooses to follow them. Like Facebook, Twitter has a trending page that can make an enormous impact on shaping public opinion because Twitter has the power to push stories or points of view by promoting and censoring hashtags. •: Talk radio tends to swing conservative and still reaches tens of millions of Americans each week. Hosts such as , Sean , , , and many others are often credited with the political polarization that has characterized the United States in the last ten years. Conservative radio hosts tend to focus on stories that will help their ideology’s (or candidate’s) cause. They do often succeed in bringing issues into the public debate though, as Rush Limbaugh has helped bring illegal immigration to the forefront of politics through his coverage of Donald Trump. •Fairness Doctrine: This is a now defunct policy of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission where any broadcasting station is required to present both sides of any issue in a fair, equitable way. This policy is strongly opposed by many talk radio hosts who often have one-sided agendas to push. •: The Drudge Report is a site run by , a man who rose to prominence when he exposed the Lewinsky affair. The website is a compilation of links to news stories from different websites, and the links are always accompanied by a self-written headline. A staunch conservative (and Donald Trump supporter), Drudge is a major driver of the

11 https://sputniknews.com/us/201609121045214398-google-clinton-manipulation-election/

Conservative news cycle and can often impact the news agenda with controversial headlines and choosing what news stories get prominently displayed. The Drudge Report currently gets around 1 billion page views per month. •Eric Schmidt: Executive Chairman of Alphabet (Google). In 2015 he launched a startup company called “The Groundwork.” This company was launched with the sole goal of ensuring that Hillary Clinton has the engineering talent to win the election and give her all possible advantages in campaigning on the Internet. A leaked John Podesta email shows that Schmidt collaborated in depth with the Clinton campaign. •: Reddit has turned into an internet powerhouse where millions of people come to read comics, learn new things, have a laugh, and get their news. There are subreddits for many topics, but some of the prominent ones having to do with politics are r/news, r/worldnews, /r/The_Donald, and /r/SandersForPresident. Reddit has had some leadership issues recently with outgoing CEO Ellen Pao, and there have been many accusations of Reddit censoring stories to support political agendas, including this one. •Jeff Bezos: Founder of Amazon and a cool $70.4 billion dollars, Jeff Bezos is a major, influential American figure who isn’t afraid to throw his weight around politically. In 2013 Bezos famously bought , one of the most influential newspapers in America. •Carlos Slim: A Mexican National who held the title as the world’s wealthiest man from 2010- 2013, Slim is currently worth about $50 billion dollars, and is currently the largest stockholder of . •Wikileaks: Wikileaks, run by , is an organization that has exposed a lot of government activity and is famous for exposing a lot of dirt on Hillary Clinton during the 2016 Presidential race. There have been many accusations from the American left (and a few from the American right) that Wikileaks is being used by foreign powers such as Russia to control the outcome of the U.S. election. •Federal Communications Commission: The FCC currently has the authority to regulate media, and their main regulations target indecency on broadcast stations/networks. The United States government is restricted in what it can do to check the media because of the existence of the first amendment and the rich tradition of the freedom of press in the U.S. •Horse Race Election Coverage: The presentation of political events by always using polling. News stations often run their own polls, and polls are discussed frequently on a national platform

throughout entire campaigns. Some accuse this presentation of the news of being counterproductive because polls often become hot topics and create their own news, which can lead to a bandwagon effect amongst people and impact the election cycle as much as the issues. •The Telecommunications Act of 1996: This act of congress overhauled existing media regulation and made loosened federal control of how media companies could expand. The law made it legal for companies to own multiple media platforms in single markets (so NBC can own both a daily newspaper and a local TV station in a single jurisdiction.) The result of the act has been a decrease in the number of major media companies. •“Infotainment”: Described by academics such as Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Hudson, and McKay, “infotainment” refers to the merger of informative coverage and entertainment. This phenomena is caused by the fact that corporations are profit-driven and earn revenue based on the number of viewers that they pull in. Motivated by profit, media companies often portray events such as elections and wars in a non-controversial, entertaining light that focuses less on actual analysis and more on exciting viewers. •“Fake News”: After the election of Donald Trump, a debate arose over the impact of “fake news” on the election. In the weeks after the election accusations were lobbed from both sides of the political spectrum about fake news. Sites such as Infowars and Breitbart were constantly targeted by the left, and sites such as the New York Times, Rolling Stone, and Huffington Post were often targeted by members of the right for publishing false “fake news” stories and pushing narratives. •Infowars: A controversial, but influential news organization run by . The website reports from an angle that there are secret conspiracies by a global elite to take over the world and run America, and they are largely responsible for pushing the #PizzaGate narrative about powerful figures such as Hillary Clinton and John Podesta being involved in a pedophile ring.

http://nypost.com/2016/12/04/the-war-on-fake-news-is-all-about-censoring-real-news/ #Article by NY Post on why the stuff about fake news may be about censorship http://www.snopes.com/2016/01/14/fake-news-sites/ #Article by detailing a bunch of sites devoted to publishing fake news

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/uk-elections-2016-how- facebook-is-manipulating-you-to-vote-a7015196.html #Facebook has the power to manipulate elections by what they present to you

Briefs

I. The Mass Media Establishment, Consolidation, and Backlash of the Internet In 1983 roughly 50 media companies controlled the lion’s share of media in the United States, but as of 2012 this power has been consolidated into the hands of 6 major companies: Disney, Comcast, , CBS, Viacom, and Time Warner. Whether this is a problem is debatable, but many see the consolidation of information as a threat to democracy. Thomas Jefferson believed that "an informed citizenry is the only true repository of the public will,” and having a powerful, centralized media could be a threat to this principle of democracy. Corporate billionaire titans such as Rupert Murdoch, Sumner Redstone, Carlos Slim, Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg, and a handful of others have interests of their own, and could have the power to use their networks to represent these interests to the public. Traditionally people have gotten their news and information from the radio, the newspapers, and television. A few decades ago outlets were not very centralized; in fact, the only major national outlets were the New York Times and the major broadcast stations (NBC, CBS, and ABC). There were fewer sources of news, but more people providing these sources. However, as the traditional means of media have become centralized, newer forms of media have taken root, and are now beginning to overshadow the traditional print media and broadcasting stations. The Internet has made information accessible to people like never before. Anyone can create a website, and there are now literally thousands of news sites accessible to anyone with a connection. While most sites are not as powerful as traditional media, some have taken root and become forces to reckon with. The Drudge Report, the Huffington Post, Breitbart, and Infowars are a few non-mainstream websites that have blossomed over the last decade to have massive followings and readerships. The traditional media giants have a firmer grip than ever on the

traditional media outlets, but they are sometimes struggling to compete with newer websites (though they have all adapted and have strong internet footprints.) One threat that the age of the internet has brought to news is misinformation. It is easier than ever to post “fake news” and create fake narratives that can take off on Twitter and dupe a large number of people into believing. Stories can now take off and go viral before they are discredited. Some question whether it’s government’s responsibility to regulate the Internet in order to protect the people from the spread of misinformation.

II. The Potential Hidden Agenda of As private businesses, social media websites and search engines don’t have anything preventing them from manipulating the information that they present. Stories or narratives can be created or suppressed without any consequences except consumer backlash. When I type “news” into the bar, why are my top three hits “CNN”, “Google News”, and “Yahoo News”? The answer is Google’s algorithm. There were 9,070,000,000 search results, but most people won’t look passed the first three to five links presented. The inherent laziness (or contentment) of people searching for information on the internet means that they will likely digest what results come up first. With over half of the world’s internet search engine traffic being processed by Google, they have the power to sway public opinion and favor their own businesses or promote agendas. Should the United States follow Europe’s lead in challenging Google? Perhaps the reason it has not done so is because of the extremely close relationship between the White House and Google. Facebook got in a lot of controversy earlier this year when it was revealed that the “Trending” news section of their website was revealed to be artificial, with stories that Facebook curators wanted to see pushed being injected to look like they were organically trending. Facebook has the power to control what users see, and it has been revealed that Facebook has experimented with swaying elections and impacting behavior by what data and posts people see. As a private entity, Mark Zuckerberg and the rest of the people running Facebook have an enormous amount of power in pushing some stories, censoring stories, and possibly even impacting behavior. Twitter has risen in significance with its contribution to the public narrative and discussion during the last few elections. Co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey has said that “Twitter

stands for freedom of expression. We stand for speaking truth to power. And we stand for empowering dialogue.” President Obama famously used it as an edge against McCain and later Romney. However, Donald Trump is the most famous Presidential candidate for using Twitter to communicate directly with the masses. Tweeting is an easy way to make stories, viewpoints, and events go viral. One of the main features of Twitter is a trending section, which can show you regional, national, and global trending topics. The top trending topics on twitter generate a lot of attention throughout the rest of the media and on twitter itself, and they are seen as being representative of what people are talking about. However, Twitter has been accused of political censorship of both hashtags and user accounts (by both people on the left and the right). In one instance, #HillaryForPrison was censored, so #HillaryForPrision trended in response. Of course there are more technology players than Twitter, Google, and Facebook that have agendas and impact what information people see. Examples may include, but are not limited to, , Google-Plus, Reddit, and Apple. When considering how to deal with the hidden agendas of the media in 2016, you have to consider all forms of the media and consider where people consume their information. Ultimately, as people get information more and more from their neighbors and ordinary fellow Americans, regulating what people see and looking at bias of information will become more and more difficult.

Mixed Media

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http://www.journalism.org/2014/10/21/political-polarization-media-habits/ http://www.journalism.org/2016/12/15/many-americans-believe-fake-news-is-sowing- confusion/

http://www.journalism.org/2016/06/15/state-of-the-news-media-2016/