Cut and Paste Reality

I am grateful for the ability to suddenly see that media utilizes the ability to focus in on and, inversely, tune out certain aspects, perspectives, or facts when depicting a story. The ability to pick and choose what to tell people and what to not disclose is a conscious one that definitely has a huge role in the audience’s conclusions and, indirectly affects their reactions to the “information” that they are receiving. This power is all the more daunting when one realizes the utter lack of diversity amongst those that control the media. The ability to alter the truth, by playing up and downplaying facts at one’s whim paired with the extremely narrow views of essentially determining “what’s news” makes the inundation of media all the more terrifying. We are receiving biased “information”, and in addition, we receive so much of it that these flawed views are distributed throughout our society as infallible due to their sheer magnitude. This gives media the power to completely alter our perception of society. McChessney equates the consolidation of media ownership to the loss of democracy. Though this connection initially seems far-fetched, when media is as concentrated as it is now, the few media empires that own virtually all the channels through which we receive information are able to dictate what is important, what we should care about---what matters. Thus, they have a perceptible influence on our point-of-view, which in turn, affects our stances and positions on issues. By selecting which content we receive and that which is thrown on the cutting room floor, these media chiefdoms are able to nudge people into support of some stances or gently push the general populace into opposition of another policy or viewpoint. The distortion in facts and highly narrow perspectives---that ignored the great diversity of our nation---coupled with the saturation of information from these highly concentrated media empires give media all-access passes to the warping of everyday reality for the American populace.

The question then becomes why the people controlling media choose to highlight certain stories and diminish others. What exactly is their criterion for distinguishing between a top story and a flop? We learned in class that the main function of media today is profit-generation. From my previous business courses, I recognize that any company whose main goal or vision is maximizing profit is in trouble. Yes, the underlying motive for any company is making a profit. However, for that concept to be the overarching principle is disturbing to say the least. A company operating purely for profit seeks to cut as many corners as possible and to charge as much as the market will allow. A company whose primary focus is increasing its bottom line seeks the highest volume sales possible. It does not seek the highest quality product or service. It seeks to meet the bare minimum standards---nothing more, nothing less. The other problem with a purely profit-driven company, or in this case a profit-driven industry, is that the business tries to reach as many people as possible. I recently learned in my Strategic Management Course, that this is a recipe for disaster. Companies must choose a distinct target market that they wish to serve and through marketing its product directly to this market, hopefully gain their patronage. The mass media’s strategies of basically targeting everyone results in their ineffective service of most. They can’t possibly cater to all of the different tastes and preferences of the consumers. This brings me back to the initial question of how the top stories are selected. The mass media attempts to guess what the majority populace would like to hear or see. Once they decide what’s important, they market the heck out of the stories. Commercials hype them up. Snippets of information tease the audience in waiting a couple more minutes to hear this “developing story”. In other words, through the consistent message of urgency and importance, the media conveys the importance of the event, story, or whatever. It’s basically the same as the chicken and egg theory and the question of which comes first. The chicken creates the egg; however, the chicken was once an egg itself. In this case, I believe that media decides what’s important and merely tests the waters a little to ensure that people will bite.

Media Mania Part I

Last semester as I browsed through the long list of available liberal arts courses, the course name “Media Studies” immediately caught my interest. In just a couple of class sessions, I’ve already begun to be more aware of the huge influx of media constantly surrounding me. Thus, it becomes pertinent to one’s success in any industry, business in particular, that one is able to effectively manipulate according to one’s personal interests. The question then becomes, what exactly are media? In Media Studies, the first day of class we defined media as the plural of medium, which is defined as any technology used to communicate thoughts. Unfortunately, when thoughts or ideas are mediated into our homes, classrooms, and general society, the biases and personal perspectives of the source are also absorbed. This makes nearly every piece of “information” received from media, essentially distorted and flawed in that it contains the distinct opinion and perspective of another.
One need not question why media are such big players in today’s society. Every piece of knowledge we hold as true is provided via the mass media. In school, we learn from books, a medium that conveys information through written material. At home, we learn of current events through the news, which is an unbeatable combination of text, sound, and images, or read the newspaper, which through images and text, convey information about our neighborhood, region, country, and world. If one truly begins to evaluate the extent of power and presence media holds in our society, our utter dependence upon it to function, to think, and, essentially, to survive is revealed. Thus, Gitlin’s media “torrent” begins to be fully realized.
I must admit, I initially found Gitlin’s theory on the inundation of media as an elaborate exaggeration. For me, his accounts in the introduction of “Media Unlimited” portrayed a world more similar to Aldous Huxley’s fictional “Brave New World” than the world in which I reside. In my opinion, his concept on the omnipresence of media and the notion that we seem completely unaware of the true extent of its presence, and inadvertently, its influence in society, portrays humans as mindless beings merely living under the illusion of free thought and free choice. Though it was later clarified in class that Gitlin is not proposing any brainwashing or menacing scheme behind the presence of media, I still initially felt that Gitlin gave media way too much leverage to mass media’s role in today’s society. It wasn’t until I was preparing to write this blog on how Gitlin’s theory on the “media torrent” was bogus, and how though there is a strong presence of media, it is not nearly as powerful as he proposed, I realized that…he was right. For as I sat down and prepared to write the paper, I couldn’t even begin to write my thoughts down without plugging in the ear buds of my Ipod. Then, I thought back to how I completely dropped whatever I was doing to watch the Season Premiere of Top Model a couple of weeks ago. Perhaps the reason I initially rejected Gitlin’s preface is because doing so meant turning the microscope onto my own life and recognizing all of the ways I, myself, am influenced by media. I was (and yet am) definitely uncomfortable with the sudden awareness of the huge influence of media in my everyday life. Though I doubt this awareness will make me change my habits, it will certainly make me more a more conscious-consumer of the mass media. I am suddenly extremely sensitive to its presence. It’s like awakening from a mind-numbing stupor, or, to use an example more pertinent to the class, like Neo when he took the little pill that allowed him to see through the illusions of reality and finally view his world as it really was. Thanks to my mere two weeks in Media Services, I’m developing the ability to see through all the fluff.