Top 10

Media Ownership
Before taking this class I didn’t know anything about how television is controlled and ran. It was weird to learn that 90% of our media content is owned by 6 TNCs. Companies such as AOL Time Warner brought in more than $4 billion in 2000 (Media Society, pg 35.) It wasn’t always like this however. There used to be more people in charge of what we see, and now that number has decreased to six. Will this trend of “vertical integration” (Media Society, pg 40) continue as the number of owners shrinks?


Information Access
We gain information so quickly due to our different forms of media. Media evolved from newspapers to television to the internet. If there is anything I want to look up, I can do a quick Wikipedia search and have pages of information. What’s next? The book “Feed” by M.T. Anderson suggests computer chips in our brains. A part of what Feed is saying is that this technology in our brains will advertise products to us (Feed, 299.)


Media Ethics
Media ethics refers to the moral standards we see in the media. The way the media goes about their business can be thought of as unethical at times. Breaking every ten minutes for three minutes of advertisements is an example of a questionable ethical topic in media. The media also affects our opinions. Ideologies are created through the media. Eminem’s album. The Marshall Mathers LP was nominated for Album of the Year in 2001 (Media Society, 162.) There was some dispute due to “angry” lyrics. Is it ethical to discredit an artist even when the album is popular?


Facebook/Twitter
Facebook and Twitter are two media tools whose outcome is based on how it’s used. They can be both great tools for group organization, micro-blogging, and mass communication. Facebook has over 6 million users and is expanding rapidly every day (Twitter Nation Has Arrived: How Scared Should We Be? By Alexander Zaitchik, AlterNet.) Something so popular has to be discussed. There is a lot people don’t like about these sites. Personally, I could care less if you like bonfires and cupcakes. Who doesn’t?
Not to mention it’s a huge time sapper.


The Peek-a-Boo World
Neil Postman writes about “The Peek-a-Boo World” that we live in. It is full of advertisements, flashy montages and bad guys getting blown up. Postman’s “Amusing Ourselves to Death” was written in 1985 but his words of wisdom are applied more than ever today. I found a video of Someone walking through Time Square in New York. All you see is ads.



News Objectivity
News and objective are usually two words that aren’t next to each other. We learned that there isn’t just one side, or even two sides to the news. There are many sides to every story.


Conspiracy Theories Debunked
We discussed media’s coverage of 9/11. Television showed the clips of planes flying into the World Trade Center. We were told it was done by terrorists hijacking the planes. Many people don’t believe this. Because the news only showed this one side, many conspiracy theories developed. This is a video that proves many of them wrong.

News as Entertainment
Most people will agree that news should be news and entertainment should be entertainment. With so much going on in the world, you would think major news channels would focus on what’s important. Just look at the Censored books. There are so many stories that are important on an international level; but we hardly hear of them. And just as Postman wrote in 1985, news has become a form of entertainment.


Consumerism
A common theme in the world of media today is the idea of consumerism. Clever marketing and abundance in advertisement creates a desire to buy things we don’t always need. This is a theme that appears in the book Feed. A constant feed and flow of advertisements resulted in them going out and buying items from the newest sale. Everything must go!