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5 April 08
My American Media.
I was born suspicious and I freely admit it. Because of that natural instinct, I question just about everything from personal motivations to grand and far flung conspiracies. That said, I don’t believe everything I hear and I don’t expect everyone to believe everything I say. Actually, if one is to take all they hear and all they read as gospel, without an iota of fact checking, well, call them ignorant, call them sheeples. Then again, in this new century, it can be downright frustrating to get to the bottom of anything one hears, reads or sees. Fact is, there’s a lot of information out there and one could spend a lifetime trying to sort through it all.
Speaking of the Gospel, we attribute a bit too much of that particular truth to what we call the mainstream media. We all know they influence our lives, in not only what we buy, and what we think, but how we think as well.
At this point, one is probably thinking something along the line that I’m writing about everyone else, but I’ve got news for you. You’re included! While you might admit you’re influenced by our media, you’d never admit to just how much. You would never admit to the loss of independent thought and free will, after all, you make your own decisions.
What are those decisions based on? When you buy your tube of toothpaste, is it the same brand you used when you were growing up or did your spouse win, and a tube of Close Up sets on your vanity or god for bide, you’re rich enough to afford two separate brands. The point I want to make, and that you already know as an intelligent and well versed individual, is that advertising works.
The question I’m wondering about at the moment, have these proven techniques in public persuasion been used in our mainstream news outlets? After all, be it print, on the net or on the tube, it’s all a product they want you to consume.
Granted, we know they juice up their graphics and their anchors are pleasing to our eyeballs, and every single item we see in televised news is designed to keep your attention. Radio of course doesn’t have the visual attractions and print lacks the obvious. So, what about actual content? Well, I believe content has to be regarded in context, and if it’s not, that content becomes misleading. A recent example are the numerous clips of Obama’s Pastor. These clips were used to define thirty years of this mans life and service to his Church. The intent in the rabid display of these clips was to inform you, that this happened day in, day out and made you believe the people of this Church hated America, hated you!
Blogs are notorious for not taking the effort to add context, especially to their videos. If you check out Andy Barnett’s post for April 3rd, you’ll come across a video, with the heading, “Barak Obama is anti life and sees babies as punishment”. Clearly out of context and designed to piss you off and again, change how you think.
Yeah, that's right: people are told what to think by the media. And the vast majority of people obediently think as they're told. It's just human nature--who has the time or the energy to sort out all the issues one's self? The media does this for us. It offers us safe, often comforting opinions that appear to be the consensus of the nation. (The internet is a chink in the armor.) Media Framing, Working Psycology.com
Another article, “Mutliple births, does the news media influence public perception?” is an interesting read as well.
In a recent survey, 75% of those polled relate that they rely on media coverage for medical information that figures heavily in their decision making. In some settings, that information is held side-by-side with that offered by their medical providers. There are several reasons for this power.
The larger question in this diatribe has a lot to do with that single word, ‘Power’. Is there a concentrated effort on the media’s part to influence how we think when it comes to politics? They certainly have the capability, and at least Fox news has the balls to be biased (IMHO). And think about this, if there was a grand and organized, corporate conspiracy to influence how you and I tend to think, we’d be totally screwed because we’d willing accept it. Why? Because to do something about it would change the face of our entertainment subscription, and we’d never accept that.
Bottom line, don’t believe everything I say, go find some facts, happy hunting and by the time you sort it all out, well, the world will have passed you by.
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