Equal Media Access example essay topic

... is to be avoided. The media itself is partially responsible for social division so it seems ironic to suggest that the media itself could alleviate social boundaries. In the United States, especially, it could almost be argued that the media incites racism. News reports, along with shows like "Cops" and the cleverly titled "World's Scariest Police Chases" constantly show a high percentage of crimes committed by Black and Hispanic people.

And since 9/11 anybody of Middle Eastern extraction seems to be feared as a terrorist. A high percentage of ethnic minorities inhabit most of the poorer areas of the United States. Those television images are creating a prejudice against people, because of the colour of their skin and the language they speak, as well as attaching a negative association to those areas in which they live. These people do not have the same media access as the middle and upper classes. They cannot afford the digital satellite television subscriptions, broadband Internet connections and mobile phone bills (or for that matter, the television, computer and mobile phone they would need in the first place). So, could it be argued that modern technological improvements are actually widening the gap between social classes rather than alleviating them?

But what if somehow, everybody did have equal media access? Just because everyone has the same media access does not mean that everybody will access the same media. Take the Internet for example. The Internet is extremely useful.

One can obtain information on the most obscure subject (it is unlikely that this essay could have been written without it). It gives us seemingly infinite information on at our fingertips. E-mail is so much faster than normal mail. The Internet gives us the ability to have instant text conversations with people on the other side of the world using programs like MSN Messenger. We can get news updates as stories break and, with the advent of broadband, also live audio and video coverage. But one of the Internet's primary uses is nothing more than as a global pornography ring.

In 2003, a report suggested that 12% of websites were pornographic, 8% of emails were porn related, 25% of search engine requests were for pornography and 35% of peer-to-peer downloads were of pornographic files. The numbers speak for themselves. This argument is beginning to sound more like a sociology study than a media one, but this is fair, because of the power that media has (especially television) to alter people's emotions and to condition their opinions. According to the study Media Effect: The Psychology of Television by J. Bryan and D. Zillion:" Daily exposure to television provides a centralized mass media production of a coherent set of images and messages produced for total populations, and in its relatively nonselective, almost ritualistic use by most viewers. This total pattern accounts for the historically new and distinct consequences of living with television as a cultivation of shared conceptions of reality among otherwise diverse populations. Compared to other media, television provides a relatively restricted set of choices for a virtually unrestricted variety of interests and public gratification".

What has happened to democracy? There is no place for capitalist globalization in democracy. The media is used for control. Is the irony of Western civilisation not that Capitalism has become a kind of "Corporate Communism"?

What do we see on tv? Hours and hours of relentless advertising, nonsensical programmes depicting a world of material joy that doesn't even exist. Nowhere, can we find objective, balanced and unbiased news reporting. Computer Games, Films and Music seem to be full of violence, explicit language and sex. There is no longer any censorship. It is genius in a way.

Violence is used to make you afraid and advertising / product placement is used to make you consume. And isn't that what it's all about at the end of the day? People working 40 hours a week, making the "world go round" only to spend most of their wages on material items that they believe will make them happy. Capitalism is moulding everybody into a single conscience: An ignorant user-consumer. And the most tragic thing of all is the ignorance; they don't even see it happening.

We are constantly reminded of our "freedom" and so the illusion of "choice" is created. We think we choose the clothes we wear, the cars we drive and the television programmes we watch. Thoreau knew all about it over 150 years ago. "The head monkey at Paris puts on a traveller's cap, and all the monkeys in America do the same... Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new". And he also understood how technology makes life easier for those who use it, despite weakening them as people.

"While civilisation has been improving our houses, it has not equally improved the men who are to inhabit them". And perhaps the keeping up with the Jones's approach to life we are all guilty of has existed for longer than we thought. "Most men appear never to have considered what a house is, and are actually though needlessly poor all their lives because they think that they must have such a one as their neighbours have". What has happened to morality? People don't seem to care the GAP sweater they " re wearing was stitched in Thailand by a 5 year old boy who earns 30 cent a day. Their Nike's were made in Singapore by a 6 year old girl in a sweatshop.

She earns the equivalent of EUR 2.70 a week. Yet people in the West are pissed off because they can't buy the latest mod-con because they "maxed out their credit-card" on those Gucci boots. People don't care about the millions that starve everyday but they care enough about some C-List celebrity in a soap that they think "they can relate to". As Tyler Durden would say: "We are by-products of a lifetime obsession.

Murder, Crime, Poverty... These things don't concern me. What concerns me are celebrity magazines, television with 500 channels, some guy's name on my underwear. Rogaine.

Viagra. Olestra". The fundamental traits of humanity that allow media to control them are ignorance and greed. We always want more. And we care about nothing.

We are the post MTV generation. According to Lisa Simpson "we feel neither highs nor lows". We just treat life like a conveyor belt, going along the production line from birth to death and we never really live. You would imagine that there could be another generation like the 60's, another rebellion against conformity. But people are too ignorant for that to happen. And all the while Murdoch and Berlusconi are raking in the money and they still want more.

And we will give it to them. I will leave you as I started, with the words of Tyler Durden. "God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables... slaves with white collars. Advertising has its taste in cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We " re the middle children of history, no purpose or place. We have no Great War.

No great depression. Our Great War is a spiritual war... Our great depression is our lives. We " ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd be millionaires, movie gods, and rock stars.

But we won't. We " re slowly learning that fact. And we " re very, VERY PISSED OFF."So fuck off with your sofa units and Str inne green stripe patterns. I say never be complete. I say stop being perfect. I say let's evolve.

Let the chips fall where they may. But that's me and I could be wrong... ".

Bibliography

Books Thoreau, Henry David (1852) "Walden or, Life in the Woods".
Britain: Everyman's Library Moore, Michael (2003) "Dude, Where's My Country?" Britain: Penguin Books Gorman, L.
McLean, D. (2003) "Media and society in the twentieth century: a historical introduction " Britain: Blackwell PublicationsFilmsDavid Fincher (1999) "Fight Club" US: 20th Century Fox Moore, Michael (2004) "Fahrenheit 9/11" US: Optimum Releasing Ltd.
Websites Stille, Alexander (1999) "Emperor of the Air" web Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed.
Copyright (c) 2004, Columbia University Press "Ted Turner" web (1999) "Rupert Murdoch" web Penelope (2001) "Forbes Face: Rupert Murdoch" web Josh (2004) "Media coverage of issues not at all fair or balanced" web C.
H. (1993) "REITH, JOHN C.
W". web J. & Zillion, D "Media Effect: The Psychology of Television" web All websites were accessed on 21/12/2004.