The media

The media is something I read a lot and think about a lot. Ever since I studied 1 module on the history and role of the mass media in society (and wrote two 5,000+ word essays on it) I have been intrigued in the linkages between various aspects: ownership, power, influence, politics, education, democracy and so on.

Some people have huge amounts of power and one hopes the more power one has, the more responsibly that power is used. Actually one of my text books during my course was titled "Power without Responsibility" (Another one was "Get me a murder a day") and there was good reason for it. The history of the mass media, especially in Western countries (although i have mostly studied the UK and some US) is so interesting I'll briefly explain some of the key highlights which i remember from my course.

First there was the scribes and bibles and so on -creating and distributing media was expensive thus was ostensibly used by the rich (often related to the church) -since most people could not read, those that could had power, and would read aloud to the listeners. The Church had a great way of controlling people, giving them orders and so on (this was 17th century or so). Next the printing press came a long providing cheap technology to the common man. Journals, periodicals and more all sprung up and literacy grew, intellectualism grew and there was a lack of control.

Next the governments tried to limit this growth since it eroded their control -they taxed paper and other resources. It was quite effective, but underground media prospered and 1 newspaper was often seen by 10-15 people in pubs or households. But then market took over, with popular media making money and gaining in reach and quality. Drowning out the smaller ones. Rich people realised they could subtly control the messages of these media so bought them and invested more money in them.

With the beginning of the radio and TV, a new era dawned -these were controlled by governments (who governed the spectrum) and the technology needed to produce was high -plus its effect was greater than print media. Although a labour union could save up money to print (and distribute) its own newspaper, it certainly could not afford a mass audience radio or TV station.

And now, now we have global conglomerates, achieving cost efficiencies, owning magazines, tv, radio, internet, advertising boards, local and national evening papers and so on. The little man with little resources has no chance. The market of advertising has reinforced this -advertisers pay more for greater distribution, this will come from greater success (quality), which comes from investing more money in the media.

My essays focused on the role of the internet changing all of this (or not?); has it given the little man a way back to influence: where money does not matter. Well weblogs certainly have made a small impact and there are some web-based media that is successful. It seems that there will be a need for mass media that is respected for integrity and that might not be the internet, but there is a place for it somewhere. Without going on much more I hope this serves as an introduction -and I won't even touch the other aspects that are involved (for example how the mass media also tend to be the mainstream media and might serve to narrow the spectrum of political thought...)

I write this post because there is a lack of responsibility in the media. I recently re-watched 'Elephant' and read a review of it which I want to copy here. For those who do not know 'The Columbine Massacre' was when some school kids caused chaos in their school shooting randomly and killing/injuring many people for no real reason.

The day after Columbine, I was interviewed for the Tom Brokaw news program. The reporter had been assigned a theory and was seeking sound bites to support it. "Wouldn't you say," she asked, "that killings like this are influenced by violent movies?" No, I said, I wouldn't say that.".......

......"Events like this," I said, "if they are influenced by anything, are influenced by news programs like your own. When an unbalanced kid walks into a school and starts shooting, it becomes a major media event. Cable news drops ordinary programming and goes around the clock with it. The story is assigned a logo and a theme song; these two kids were packaged as the Trench Coat Mafia. The message is clear to other disturbed kids around the country: If I shoot up my school, I can be famous. The TV will talk about nothing else but me. Experts will try to figure out what I was thinking. The kids and teachers at school will see they shouldn't have messed with me. I'll go out in a blaze of glory." In short, I said, events like Columbine are influenced far less by violent movies than by CNN, the NBC Nightly News and all the other news media, who glorify the killers in the guise of "explaining" them. Roger Ebert

It provides a good example of the power of the media. Personally when money is involved (and it is for most private media) responsibility is rarely a priority. Responsible leaders in this case must treat their business as more of a business -since its a social organisation, it has social responsibilities. Maybe the media is aware of things like this (if not, they should do some research!) -if they are, why do they choose to continue? So responsible leaders in these organisations need to know the consequences of their actions -many unintended, and understand the greater role they play in society. For an IT company, this might be less than a media company, so media companies need to be even more responsible, for their power is great. How great is their responsibility? In fact the problem is that they maybe do not feel responsible to society, but to someone else (shareholders?). This seems to be the case for those who own the media (even if those in it, like reporters, are the opposite).

My advice: try to understand who you should be responsible to, try to understand how you affect them, and try to ensure those affects are positive.

I want to end with two of my favourite websites: Asia Times and Open Democracy. A great example of interesting media. The second specifically questions the role of the media and provides interesting debate as well as information. Highly recommended.