If you are a reporter in some countries, you are a marked man and the government is watching you, and one slip up and you are history, you disappear, or are thrown in jail. In the United States we have freedom of the press thankfully, and although we export our products, know-how, and services all over the world, don't expect us to be able to export that as a "new found freedom" to ports afar. In fact, many nations are busy tightening down the reins on the media, and not just newspapers and TV either. Okay so, let's discuss this for a moment shall we?
Not long ago, an acquaintance from Australia said to me; "Modern media today such as news channels do not perform a truly non biased account of the events they broadcast on."
True, but we should expect them too considering how they are paid. If a media company gets money from, oh let's say the Obama Campaign for president, then they are going to run more favorable news content when his name is mentioned, and really this happens at all levels of government, no surprise there, local newspapers cater to those who spend the most on ads too, generally. I find the Murdoch scandal in the UK interesting with the cell-phone spying as well.
It's too bad that people believe everything they view in the media, my acquaintance notes that part of the challenge is the folks are just not educated as to how the media really works, true enough I say; yes, especially kids, and the lower IQ folks just take it all in as gospel, not that gospel is any better or reality based in and of itself. For instance, as my acquaintance correctly notes; "The child grows up looking at the television for both learning and entertainment, the TV becomes effectively a third parent and in doing so we lose the battle for the child's mind."
Right and a child's mind may not recognize the difference between advertising and reality, and to my acquaintance's comments, indeed, he's right; this is an empirically proven fact, he is correct. Do we need to teach our children better about these realities, it seems we do.
As a capitalist, I do not wish to diminish the media, it's a business, and that's fine, still a little education could go a long way. Now then if we'd teach children to think and question authority we'd be there, but we teach them to submit to authority instead, perhaps as a way to ensure they grow up and do not become trouble makers to the system or status quo.
Of course in doing so, eventually some of them will wake up and be VERY Pissed-Off for being lied too, which is probably why we have Hacker Groups, Disruptors, and even some mild-version terrorists. For the "powers that be" it's a challenge of getting the mix right, and it's a trade off.
If we teach kids early on of all the deception in our society, we are indeed, teaching them to deceive, and a lack of integrity also can bring down a society or prevent it from giving future generations a fair deal. We are also teaching them to be distrustful as well. Perhaps, we ought to be teaching the "philosophical" aspect, rather than the tactics.
Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Future Concepts. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net/
