Media’s Role in a Society of Extremes
July 17th 2011 12:48
Over the past few weeks the role of media has been forced into the spotlight.
A spotlight that has been brightly glaring on an obvious problem the world public has been willing to ignore until it hit far too close to home.
What was once an institution held in the highest regard by men and women looking to shape governments based on the principles of transparency and truth has transformed into a cash cow more interested in achieving financial goals instead of living up to the responsibilities of their role in Democratic societies.
A role reserved to offset the destructive powers of governments run amok have now only been reserved for select situations that benefit the cause they are looking to promote.
In the case of the News of the World scandal; the problems of media went somewhere beyond the failures of living up to the government watchdog status bestowed upon them and dug right to the core to the problems of an entire industry as opposed to the actions of one empire.
Problems, when media companies are allowed to play a dangerous game of information wars that rewards institutions for being the first to break stories and buries companies that are left caught under their enormous weight.
In an information age that has made social networking the primary source for breaking news; media companies have succumbed to the pressure of finding new sources for gaining information that has crossed legal and moral boundaries.
For all the time spent spinning the public into a fanatical frenzy over a loss of privacy rights in the information age many people in the conversation are failing to realize that the real villains are the entities that are telling us to be afraid.
The sad thing about the state of modern media has very little to do with any specific instance or atrocity committed by a single media empire and has everything to do with the public’s failed reaction.
Instead of taking an entire industry to task we choose to pick and pull certain aspects of the story to fit into a narrative about the things we want to hear from the issue.
Narratives about the political leanings of company figure heads and how it fits into long running conspiracy theories about the things we would like to see changed on one side of the fence but not the other.
Throwing stones at one side of the problem is never a solution that will fix a much bigger issue.
An issue that has everything to do with the massive size of media empires and everything they feel they have to do to finish at the front of the pack.
If anybody is appalled by the actions of News of the World and wants to seek real change in an industry that has forgotten it’s fundamentals they must begin this quest by looking inside of themselves.
A quest that requires the ability to see through the façade of being told to pick sides in fights between empires that use half and bad information to steer the public in radical directions while the roaches continue to scurry in dark corners.
Much like the political arena; it is the people that have final say over the actions of news empires and can exercise their might by making the decision to support or not to support their actions.
The actions of Media and Politicians are a reflection on the state of society.
Positive or Negative it is up to us as individuals to call a spade a spade no matter how much emotion is stirred from efforts of spin doctors to bounce our anger off one another.
The posted image is courtesy of the website Third World Traveler which can be located @ www.thirdworldtraveler.com
A spotlight that has been brightly glaring on an obvious problem the world public has been willing to ignore until it hit far too close to home.
What was once an institution held in the highest regard by men and women looking to shape governments based on the principles of transparency and truth has transformed into a cash cow more interested in achieving financial goals instead of living up to the responsibilities of their role in Democratic societies.
A role reserved to offset the destructive powers of governments run amok have now only been reserved for select situations that benefit the cause they are looking to promote.
In the case of the News of the World scandal; the problems of media went somewhere beyond the failures of living up to the government watchdog status bestowed upon them and dug right to the core to the problems of an entire industry as opposed to the actions of one empire.
Problems, when media companies are allowed to play a dangerous game of information wars that rewards institutions for being the first to break stories and buries companies that are left caught under their enormous weight.
In an information age that has made social networking the primary source for breaking news; media companies have succumbed to the pressure of finding new sources for gaining information that has crossed legal and moral boundaries.
For all the time spent spinning the public into a fanatical frenzy over a loss of privacy rights in the information age many people in the conversation are failing to realize that the real villains are the entities that are telling us to be afraid.
The sad thing about the state of modern media has very little to do with any specific instance or atrocity committed by a single media empire and has everything to do with the public’s failed reaction.
Instead of taking an entire industry to task we choose to pick and pull certain aspects of the story to fit into a narrative about the things we want to hear from the issue.
Narratives about the political leanings of company figure heads and how it fits into long running conspiracy theories about the things we would like to see changed on one side of the fence but not the other.
Throwing stones at one side of the problem is never a solution that will fix a much bigger issue.
An issue that has everything to do with the massive size of media empires and everything they feel they have to do to finish at the front of the pack.
If anybody is appalled by the actions of News of the World and wants to seek real change in an industry that has forgotten it’s fundamentals they must begin this quest by looking inside of themselves.
A quest that requires the ability to see through the façade of being told to pick sides in fights between empires that use half and bad information to steer the public in radical directions while the roaches continue to scurry in dark corners.
Much like the political arena; it is the people that have final say over the actions of news empires and can exercise their might by making the decision to support or not to support their actions.
The actions of Media and Politicians are a reflection on the state of society.
Positive or Negative it is up to us as individuals to call a spade a spade no matter how much emotion is stirred from efforts of spin doctors to bounce our anger off one another.
Media Monkeys
The posted image is courtesy of the website Third World Traveler which can be located @ www.thirdworldtraveler.com
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