The case for abolishing mass media

Far-right movements are driven not just by ideology but by the media itself, argues Kai I.

In light of recent far-right protests across the country, which mobilised over 100,000 anti-immigration protestors in London as well as demonstrations in Falkirk and other towns, it is important to examine the growth of the far right. The way news outlets reported on these events without critique shows how such moments are commodified by the mass media. This makes clear that the media is not a neutral observer but active in shaping political reality.

The intellectual and political work of the Situationist International in the 1950s can help us understand how media operates. In capitalist society, media and images are our primary means of social relation. Our experiences are not truly lived but mediated through commodities. The Situationists rooted their work in a critique of capitalism and the systems that sustain it, theorising the role of mass culture and media in reproducing domination. That critique remains relevant in the face of today’s reactionary forces.

Conceptually, this was expressed by Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle. The social value of commodities is separated from the process of labour, so we begin to view their value not as a product of human effort, but as mystical properties. This commodity fetishism is upheld by the mass media. Our understanding of one another is filtered through the lens of value. Value is attached to certain individuals, repackaged, and sold back to us. 

A clear example of this is through the far-right figurehead – Stephen Yaxley-Lennon or Tommy Robinson. He is sold to us as part of the spectacle, continually reproducing fascist ideals. He is viewed as larger than life, transformed into a commodity with exchange value. A Sky News article on the protests depicted him as an influential commodity, highlighting his backing from Elon Musk, all the while refusing to condemn the march as fascist or right wing, in order to preserve his sway over the masses. Similarly, with the headline ‘Cryptocoins, official merch and Elon Musk: How Tommy Robinson pulled off his biggest march yet’, The Independent presented him as a political celebrity, whose worth is measured in flashy and elite support. 

The mass media profits from our attention to Robinson, aiding the rise of fascism while maintaining the spectacle by attaching value to his name. The media do not treat him as a human being with repugnant ideas but as a commodity to be exchanged for profit. The mass media’s role in promoting fascism can be exemplified in the spread of disinformation across social media platforms. Here, disinformation is sold as a commodity to distort our need for social and economic liberation. Debord argued that our lived experiences are continually replaced by the experience of the commodity. We revere the commodity and its mystical properties while distorting and ignoring the material reality in which we exist.

In the 21st century, this analysis is more relevant than ever. For the young people especially, socialisation is commodified via social media or mainstream media. We are sold a representation of a life which we truly cannot live. Instead of remembering the taste of your favourite drink – how it feels on your tongue and the way it settles in your stomach – you know it only as a commodity whose value is dictated by capitalism.

Similarly, the media commodifies fascists and their movements as larger than life. We encounter their supposed glory through a screen rather than by understanding their ideals as horror. The damage inflicted by fascism is reduced to a number, a viewership metric, an economisation of human suffering sold for profit. Even our relations with migrants are shaped through their lens of the fascist commodity rather than through human interaction.

This mediation of human social experience through commodities isn’t natural nor eternal but rather a result of the economisation of all areas of social life under capitalism. How can we as communists abolish mass media, along with the rest of capitalist society? The spectacle is not permanent. It can and should be destroyed in the process of revolution, which requires the demolition of capitalism and the state.