We don’t like to admit it, because we like to think that
our thoughts derive from our wealth of knowledge gathered through
years of study and experience. But if the truth be told, most of
what we do or think is influenced by what we see on television,
what we read in the newspapers or magazines, what we hear on the
radio and what we click on the Internet.
Our choices for brand of coffee, educational institution and
style of clothing are often made after consulting with the wizards
of electronics and digital innovation. Our opinions are shaped by
the jury of popular opinion presented constantly through the
avenues of communication. The various forms of media even formulate
our likes and dislikes. Whether we admit it or not, we have become
what we read, see and hear.
The media’s influence is blatantly apparent to many. Men
who take flight with a spherical object with the intent of putting
said object through a round hoop capture the fancy of millions of
boys and girls around the world.
Those who sing, whoop, rap, swivel or scream through lyrics,
both tame and X-rated, provide free advertising of their lifestyle,
their clothing, their make-up and even their mannerisms.
Corporations purchase thousands of hours striving to influence men
and women to buy their improved, faster, quicker products that may
do no more than previous versions.
Radio personalities on both the right and the left thunder their
views, which they take to be absolutely correct, over the airwaves.
Governments present propaganda favorable to their cause, droning on
and on in efforts to indoctrinate and saturate their constituency.
Even those who dare to be different receive information vital to
accomplish this feat through some type of medium.
Let’s face it; we are who we are because of what
we’ve been exposed to ““ and we’ve been exposed
daily to the relentless onslaught of the media.
Is this good or bad for us?
Obviously, we would not know where to spend vacations, get the
best buys, find the best universities, obtain the cheapest
textbooks or pay the lowest rent without some use of media. The use
of the media gives us almost unlimited choices in what we can do
and allows us to make more informed choices regarding the world
around us ““ and reap the benefits as a result.
On the other hand, most media outlets propound some point of
view, being biased against other arguments or philosophies that do
not agree; those who use one or two outlets as the distributors of
ideas become rather one-dimensional, even intolerant. So it becomes
evident that it’s not the media that is the problem, but how
we use the media to either bring us together or to divide us into
warring factions.
People will always attempt to present a platform from which to
trumpet their ideas and thoughts, whether egalitarian, populist,
separatist or inclusive. In this country, we are allowed (to a
large degree) to see and sample ideas presented by these various
platforms. What usually limits our choices is the amount of
resources available.
Whereas Time Warner and the Los Angeles Times present news and
feature stories based on what appeals to the general public, many
other media outlets have neither the money nor the clout to present
opposing or differing views of the same news item. If we allow
ourselves to become complacent in gathering information, we will
merely parrot what major media outlets would like us to believe.
Once this happens, can we actually blame the media for their
influence?
Therefore, the comments of those who blame segments of the media
for destroying the moral or social fabric of this and other
countries are not totally correct. If a person should listen to the
rants and diatribes of the right and the left, each one blames the
media for distorting its views while supporting the arguments of
the opposing side.
For instance, when the L.A. riots took place, the right took
exception to stories that put much of the blame on social
circumstances that laid bare the problems of discrimination and
inequity.
At the same time, the left took exception to stories that
wondered why supposedly law-abiding people would loot stores and
burn buildings at the slightest opportunity. The stories themselves
did not appear in different papers or even in different articles;
they were merely two sides in the same article ““ yet, each
opposing faction declared the media biased. If a person then tried
to obtain another source (usually from an underground or
counterculture paper), the stories represented little more than
sermons on the writer or editor’s particular beliefs.
The right targets the media as a tool of liberals that have
destroyed our country’s morals, and the extreme right goes
even further, espousing the presence of, for example, powerful Jews
who “control” the papers ““ and therefore, the
minds of people. The left targets the media as a bunch of
money-hungry moguls who would like no better than to keep the
status quo at the expense of the poor and disadvantaged. The far
left carries this thought to its ultimate climax, decrying the
media as a weapon of the capitalist to misinform the populace and
keep them in blissful ignorance.
In both cases, the blame lies in the messengers, not the
recipients. While we do have spin-meisters who present news and
ideas in a light favorable to their constituency, the fact is that
we have become a nation of literary and visual babies, spoon-fed on
the sound bite of the day. We have only ourselves to blame for
this.
Those without sufficient education may have some excuse, as they
will depend more on visual and audio information. Even this
underscores the need for change in their circumstances, in
educational opportunities and for the need to discourage the
acceptance of everything at face value. But for those who attend
the halls of higher learning such as UCLA, the responsibility lies
even more on the individual, for there is no excuse whatsoever.
Within such an environment, we have access to various forms of
media and differing opinions. Therefore, we can obtain well-rounded
views of subjects, using the media as a tool to allow us to make
objective decisions.
While we are the children of the media, we must learn to make
the media work for us, that we may all be detectives in determining
the truth. This means performing the requisite research, exhibiting
the appropriate amount of criticism and interpreting the situation
accordingly. If enough of us take the time to practice this, maybe
in the future we will truly have an unbiased media which will
include all the news ““ not just what is “fit to
print.”