Message Vs. Masses

Since it's been a while since I've given you non-hip hop content, I decided that this post is going to be dedicated to a more general message. The "message vs. masses" topic was based off of a journalism theory paper I wrote for school. While it was a fact based thesis, I get to inject a little of my own opinion into the mix when I post.

One of the main points from my paper was that the message from media is tailored to meet all the different factions and sub-groups of society, or in layman's terms, people determine the message. Popular thought is not created by media, but reinforced and feed by the media. I was asked recently what I planned to do if I could get into the mainstream media. My answer is simple. I would not resign any of my beliefs to sell. It's just not how I am, and I believe many of you Brainiacs out there are the same way. And you have to ask yourself, if you view yourself as an intelligent, sentient being, then you are smart enough to find your own opinions when you see, hear, or read something. From all of that, you are able to decide whether what you are seeing is true or not, then you react. That reaction is what media and advertisers alike are looking for. We look for that target audience and we focus on that audience. When media does that, it affirms a message and becomes a rally call for all those of like-minded thinking. It's only when we start to depend on the media to FORM that opinion do we really lose track of the point of media. Media, especially now in the internet age, is as diverse as the people we have on this planet. In everything, there's a yin and yang. Liberal and conservative. Red and blue, black and white. You must decide where you stand, but there's the problem with media. Once you decide where you stand, you close off all other avenues to diverse thought.

I'll give a prime example. I HATE Fox News. I don't normally use such strong language, but when I see that "Fair and Balanced" flash across the screen, my blood starts to boil. Usually after watching about 25 minutes of that channel, I can no longer resist the urge to shout obscenities at my TV, while taking a sledgehammer to the holier than thou face preaching extreme conservatism to me. Sure, it might cost me a high definition TV, but the little bit of satisfaction I get from at least symbolically smashing Bill O'Reilly's face is priceless. Yet I still watch. I can't help it. CNN doesn't make me nearly as mad, but between Fox, CNN, and MSNBC, you get the full spectrum of bias. Want to stop it? Read as much as you possibly can.

The second portion of my paper was devoted to the personalities on a lot of these TV broadcast news. My thesis states that in mainstream media, where celebrity news is the most commonly covered portion of our culture, the personality bringing you the news is just that. A personality. Long gone are the days of Walter Cronkite's, Ethel Payne's, the Carl Bernstein's and Bob Woodward's. Today is owned by Chris Matthews, Bill Mahar and the Bill O'Reilly's of the world. Not journalists, but highly opinionated blowhards. Rarely shown are journalists of integrity. I only hope that I get a chance to follow in the footsteps of the older journalists before me, and I promise to never reduce myself to scare tactics and egotisitical and often divisive commentary, just for ratings and a paycheck.