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Jinn · 03-30-2007, 09:03 AM

Couldn't be more right, uber. I always hear "the media" as the cause of society's ills, but rarely do I hear specific entities addressed. The newspaper I work for is entirely different than NBC nightly news, which is certainly different from contemporary cinema, which is completely different from video games, which have no relation to tabloid magazines, which likely have nothing to do with the NY Times.

And yet "The Media" is always portrayed as a massive Goliath of ideas and products being shoved down our throats, and the source of all our wretched ideas.

"The Media" has been blamed for violence against women, violence against children, mass-murder, racism, sexism, ageism, discrimination, sexual objectification of men and women, political dissonance, antisocial tendencies, popularization of poor body image, and even drug use.

And yet, all of these things have (and do) exist in the absence of 'mass media.' Perhaps it is the individuals, rather than the force of the mass media, which causes this sort of deviance? After all, The Media is comprised of people, too.

I've recently been reading "The Trouble with Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore Inequality" by Walter Benn Michaels, and it makes a similar claim. If we face economic inequality head on, we have to develop solutions and rationalize why there are poor people. If we hide economic inequality under the guise of racism, then we can point to a unstoppable social problem.

If we blame "the media" for our poor body images, then we don't have to deal with why we've got a poor body image and why we haven't taken the time internally to change it (or change those around us).

03-30-2007, 09:03 AM	#47 (permalink)
Jinn Lover - Protector - Teacher Location: Seattle, WA	Couldn't be more right, uber. I always hear "the media" as the cause of society's ills, but rarely do I hear specific entities addressed. The newspaper I work for is entirely different than NBC nightly news, which is certainly different from contemporary cinema, which is completely different from video games, which have no relation to tabloid magazines, which likely have nothing to do with the NY Times. And yet "The Media" is always portrayed as a massive Goliath of ideas and products being shoved down our throats, and the source of all our wretched ideas. "The Media" has been blamed for violence against women, violence against children, mass-murder, racism, sexism, ageism, discrimination, sexual objectification of men and women, political dissonance, antisocial tendencies, popularization of poor body image, and even drug use. And yet, all of these things have (and do) exist in the absence of 'mass media.' Perhaps it is the individuals, rather than the force of the mass media, which causes this sort of deviance? After all, The Media is comprised of people, too. I've recently been reading "The Trouble with Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore Inequality" by Walter Benn Michaels, and it makes a similar claim. If we face economic inequality head on, we have to develop solutions and rationalize why there are poor people. If we hide economic inequality under the guise of racism, then we can point to a unstoppable social problem. If we blame "the media" for our poor body images, then we don't have to deal with why we've got a poor body image and why we haven't taken the time internally to change it (or change those around us). __________________ "I'm typing on a computer of science, which is being sent by science wires to a little science server where you can access it. I'm not typing on a computer of philosophy or religion or whatever other thing you think can be used to understand the universe because they're a poor substitute in the role of understanding the universe which exists independent from ourselves." - Willravel