What's Wrong With The Media?

Have you ever wondered who controls the mainstream media? We like to think we have got a good media because it is free. Freedom is a wonderful privilege but on its own its nothing. Today’s generation find it difficult to differentiate between reel life and real life. What is wrong with the media? Let’s take a moment to remind ourselves some of the things that might be slightly or even very wrong with mainstream media.

Look around us, kids are constantly engaged with their phones, laptops etc, they are no longer active for introspection or self reflection and reflecting others people; in turn not allowing empathy to emerge. Statistics show that empathy emerges when the body and mind are no longer engaged, in other terms when people daydream. No daydreaming means no empathy. Why do you think the social media took off so well? This is because our brain is social, and people really want to connect with others, but lately the social media has been rewiring our brains. 

We look at the media to tell us what matters but it cares predominantly about what will excite us! Sometimes the two categories coincide. But that’s a rare phenomenon. The media lacks the skill to make boring things exciting. We are built to have an almost irresistible attraction to certain stories involving “Power, Fame, Disaster and Sex”. And yet we are tempted to yawn about “Schools, Developing World Problems and the Money Supply”. We are not doing it on purpose; it’s just the equivalent of our fatal weakness for processed sugars, fats and salts. And the media does everything it can to exploit it. 

In theory the media has a deeply important function to play in a democracy; to direct a mass audience to engage with the greatest problems in society, so as to push politicians to do the necessary changes. But as it is the media is obsessed with scandals, it focuses relentlessly on the rather thrilling misdemeanors of a few people rather than the large systematic failings of the government that are harder to see and far less sexy to describe. Basically the media has become this modeling clay in the hands of the rich and powerful. Companies know how to control the media and exploit those who follow it.

The reason why celebrities have become a dirty word is because we have the wrong celebs in front of us. We need the media to anoint people with the fame, but for doing noble and good things that really help a nation. 

Instead of them ^.

Have them ^.

Essena O’Neils (original video) speaks about how social media didn’t bring her happiness but rather made her even more miserable. She felt she let herself be defined by the value of numbers. Even being at the pinnacle of success, having everything and being surrounded by all wealth, power and "fame”, she wasn’t happy. 

We deal in illusions! None of it is true! (From the 1976 motions picture , Network).

We do not need to get rid of celebrities we just need better varieties. 

The media ensures that nothing remains a priority for long. Today’s headlines become tomorrow’s history pages in some social textbooks. The media also makes us anxious and scared rather than effectively sane. One seems to always make more money by getting someone scared about bugs, viruses and explosions; rather than getting them into a sane and correct assessment of the dangers facing them and a melancholy acceptance of death and compromising in general. It reports in passive terms about adultery in Hollywood marriages or the bad behavior of a model. It pretends to care about transgressions while not admitting at the same time titillating the audience; most of whom deep in their subconscious would love to have a chance to do what’s being chastised on the surface.

The media being sanctimonious and prurient, hypocritically satisfies both our fantasies and our need to think of ourselves as normal and respectable; whilst in reality its quite the opposite. 

When it comes to influencing the people, nobody has more power than the big media companies do.

And until we can break this sick addiction to the mainstream media and get people to start thinking for themselves, we will never see extensive changes in our society. As long as people are being “programmed” by the mainstream media, they will continue to express the opinions, attitudes and beliefs that have been downloaded into their minds. And as it was in the times of Plato; let justice, truth and wisdom take the over our minds.