Enter the Media
This was originally written for The Activists and can be found here.
We live in an age of much information and little knowledge; facts, figures and events are all around us, but few if any people have the tools to filter and interpret them.
Enter the media - and by this I mean old media primarily, such as newspapers and TV. They present the news in a clear, accessible format which anyone can understand, served up with some opinions on the side. All in all, fairly good for people.
Except the media frequently misreports things, burying the facts at the bottom of the article (and sometimes getting those wrong as well). They prefer drama - selling stories and scandals - to cold, hard data. They cast anyone they hate - minorities, the poor, rebels, the government, anyone who isn't white and middle-class - in the worst possible light. They report PR stunts as news and kill with their poor understanding of science.
And people fall for it, every time.
The media controls access to information - most people are neither knowledgeable about the subjects nor care enough to do some research. Even if they did, their first line of research would still be - you guessed it - the media and press offices. It also controls thought - most people are frankly too lazy to question what they read or watch, unless it disagrees with them...in which case, they probably bought the wrong paper or are watching the wrong show.
The media pushes its frequently populist, often misguided views on a public which doesn't know better. It turns their minds against anything which might help them or seriously threaten the status quo - which, after all, they're still doing quite nicely out of bar falling circulation - and stops them from really thinking.
Here one must note that old media is largely controlled by corporations who care more about profit margins than they do about facts, accuracy and good journalism - yes, big business is trying to control people's minds as well. (They have their fingers in every pie.) I should, I suppose, be shocked and outraged about this - and I am. I don't believe, though, that frothing at the mouth will do any good - there's enough of it available on this site and others anyway.
And as for the internet - the tool which was supposed to democratise the media? It's had an effect, I'll admit, but not nearly as much of one as some would like to believe. Mainstream media sources still come up first in Google searches; they're still the source for many Wikipedia articles. After them come the tinfoil-hatted army of conspiracy theorists, then the crackheaded bigots. Shrill partisans dominate the discussion, not rational individuals. Only rarely will one find reasoned, well-written articles which deal with the facts.
The upshot of all this is that media, whatever source it comes from, is still largely focused on controlling thought - and that people still fall for it, that they actively seek it out - because who has time to think these days? Who needs to think when you slave day and night to make money? Who needs to think when you can shop instead - and who needs to think when you've got people to do your thinking for you? Never mind that they may be ill-informed, or twisting the facts, or lying outright...
...Change for the better will never happen until people free themselves from the chains of the media and learn how to think independently.
We live in an age of much information and little knowledge; facts, figures and events are all around us, but few if any people have the tools to filter and interpret them.
Enter the media - and by this I mean old media primarily, such as newspapers and TV. They present the news in a clear, accessible format which anyone can understand, served up with some opinions on the side. All in all, fairly good for people.
Except the media frequently misreports things, burying the facts at the bottom of the article (and sometimes getting those wrong as well). They prefer drama - selling stories and scandals - to cold, hard data. They cast anyone they hate - minorities, the poor, rebels, the government, anyone who isn't white and middle-class - in the worst possible light. They report PR stunts as news and kill with their poor understanding of science.
And people fall for it, every time.
The media controls access to information - most people are neither knowledgeable about the subjects nor care enough to do some research. Even if they did, their first line of research would still be - you guessed it - the media and press offices. It also controls thought - most people are frankly too lazy to question what they read or watch, unless it disagrees with them...in which case, they probably bought the wrong paper or are watching the wrong show.
The media pushes its frequently populist, often misguided views on a public which doesn't know better. It turns their minds against anything which might help them or seriously threaten the status quo - which, after all, they're still doing quite nicely out of bar falling circulation - and stops them from really thinking.
Here one must note that old media is largely controlled by corporations who care more about profit margins than they do about facts, accuracy and good journalism - yes, big business is trying to control people's minds as well. (They have their fingers in every pie.) I should, I suppose, be shocked and outraged about this - and I am. I don't believe, though, that frothing at the mouth will do any good - there's enough of it available on this site and others anyway.
And as for the internet - the tool which was supposed to democratise the media? It's had an effect, I'll admit, but not nearly as much of one as some would like to believe. Mainstream media sources still come up first in Google searches; they're still the source for many Wikipedia articles. After them come the tinfoil-hatted army of conspiracy theorists, then the crackheaded bigots. Shrill partisans dominate the discussion, not rational individuals. Only rarely will one find reasoned, well-written articles which deal with the facts.
The upshot of all this is that media, whatever source it comes from, is still largely focused on controlling thought - and that people still fall for it, that they actively seek it out - because who has time to think these days? Who needs to think when you slave day and night to make money? Who needs to think when you can shop instead - and who needs to think when you've got people to do your thinking for you? Never mind that they may be ill-informed, or twisting the facts, or lying outright...
...Change for the better will never happen until people free themselves from the chains of the media and learn how to think independently.
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