'Media' Group essay

By examining sources A through E, it quickly becomes clear that there's an intimate relationship between dictators and their media. All of the sources demonstrate how the dictator ship will use its media in order to sway popular opinion. In fact, it is often essential for dictatorships to do this to gain support for their policies and administer them in both foreign and domestic affairs.
Source A demonstrates a situation in which the media is used to replace a dictator smoothly and effectively in an authoritarian state. The first part of the source is an excerpt from Nikita Khrushchev's speech to the CCC. Khrushchev attacked the cult of personality that surrounded Stalin and was the first communist in a long time to criticize a leader and his policies. After this speech, part two of source A demonstrates how the media praises Khrushchev for his willingness to attack a cult of personality and likely impacted Khrushchev's rise to power by increasing his notoriety and authority.
Source B shows the medial reaction from two different dictatorships of the Bucharest conference. These sources illustrate how the media was used to paint conferences and other political happenings in the light of the government by which it was produced.
Source C is the first of the five sources to demonstrate the relationship between the dictatorship, the media, and the state's foreign policy. Part one of the source is an excerpt from the Chinese press, accusing the Soviets of ransacking their borders and converting their people to Soviet Communism. Part two of source C is a reactionary article from Pravda, which, in short, accuses the Chinese government of fabricating the entire incident. In both cases, the government use the media to turn the people against each other and maintain a foreign policy of tension between the two states while still keeping the approval of the public.
Source D is the people's daily on the resignation of Khrushchev and it talks about China's view and how they disagree with what Khrushchev did, and how they support the Soviets for causing him to resign. They say that Khrushchev betrayed Leninism and the proletariat and the interests of the soviet people.
Source E stands in the aftermath of the Czechoslovakian Prague Spring, which began the process of throwing off the mantle of communism in Eastern Europe. The Soviet Union paints its reaction to the incident as a staunch but at the same time compassionate attempt at pacifying the anti-soviet feelings and by doing so spreading socialist internationalism. And also, they made use of Lenin's Centinary as propaganda supporting nationalism. By contrast, the Chinese, who are at the time at odds with the Soviets paint the issue as a weakening of Soviet resolve. The Chinese, who are rather bold in their view of spreading communism around the world portray the Czech incident as a softening of Soviet doctrines in order to make themselves as the true bearers of the Communist philosophy.
In every one of these sources it is clear that authoritarian dictatorships rely on the media. Like all government types, authoritarian states need public approval to stay in power, so the media is often implemented to improve public relations and ensure the welfare of the state while simultaneously enabling them to carry out their various policies.