Appendix P - Media Reform

Media Reform

I am admittedly clueless about a lot of issues, locally, governmentally, and globally. More about this later. I’ve got the interpersonal stuff down pretty good, but once the issues get any bigger than that, my toolbox is scarcely supplied. That is why I immediately relate so many things that I learn about the state of our country and the world’s realities to individuals. It’s what I know. How can I possibly grasp the concept of broken systems bigger than the individual? I can’t help but wonder: How can we have so many good people and still so many horrible situations continue to exist. Don’t people care? And Susan says to me: “I would never say people don’t care; I’d say people don’t know.” I do believe in the fundamental good of most people. That is why can’t imagine if people really knew about bad situations, they would continue. How can we ensure people do know? How do we communicate with one another to begin with? On a scale bigger than the individual? Media. Television, radio, publications, and the internet.
If the reason why so many people don’t really know the state of the world (like me), is because they don’t know, then that means we, as a people, aren’t talking. Or at least not talking well, or about the right things, or listening to the right people… Once I made that connection I knew to begin looking at what is broken about the media. I found a lot. Books, scholarly articles, professors, social scientists, activists. There is an entire social movement happening (since about the 1980’s) to try and improve the media. In the process of getting people aboard they are really doing a lot to educate about what’s wrong with the media and the potential of a good communication system. I can see the potential, too. That’s why I feel like this is an important topic. I am notably not surprised that the need for a media reform was not widely known information. That demonstrates the reason in itself. If we were communicating well to begin with, we’d have the word out far and wide.
Basically, when I started to get curious about media, what’s wrong with it and what’s happening, I found is a resounding choir chanting: Mass Media (as we know it) is crap. The list of participants in this chant is nearly endless but includes: Widely known political scientists like Michael Parenti and Michael Schwalbe, the majority of 19 authors in the collection of Media Reform articles edited by Robert Machesney, and any chosen website about media reform written by informed people. All of which clearly paint the picture of the mass media and what is broken about it. The largest contributing factor to the failing system is the fact that a massive majority of media outlets are owned by a frighteningly small number of corporate conglomerates. There are many problems with this reality. For one, the media have complete control over the content of what we see. The spectrum of ideas and perspectives that influence what we know and think are alarmingly narrow. The media is influenced by the government, and the government is influenced by the media. Who benefits? The people making money off of the system as it is. The number of people benefiting from our media system grows smaller just as systematically as the number of people who own and control the media. That leaves the rest of us in the dark, uninformed, and blindly led down paths we might not (probably wouldn’t) otherwise choose. Like: out of control consumerism, fanatical fascination with gossip and drama, unrealistic views of happiness, and war. These issues are laid out time and time again over the bulk of available reading about Media Reform. So I won’t hash it all again. However I will follow a path of thoughtfulness about the depth and breadth of our media problem.
I do believe that if people knew about situations in the country and in the world, Media control included, we would be making very fast progress on important issues. But obviously, if people don’t know something is broken- nothing gets done to fix it. This is true about the media situation as well as any number of social issues at hand. Progress seems so slow for social change for so many issues. It takes a huge break through the crust of illusion the media sustains for people gain awareness and for real change to happen. When that breakthrough happens, people band together to make decisions and to demand that our country, and the people in it, operate in an acceptable way. To me, that is the definition of Democracy. People deciding together how the world around them is.
For people to come together and make decision they need to be informed. One of the very well informed media reform websites describes the relationship between media, and democracy and politics: “Independent, aggressive and critical media are essential to an informed democracy. But mainstream media are increasingly cozy with the economic and political powers they should be watch-dogging” (http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=101). That means we should be able to count on our media and our journalists to keep economic and political powers in check by informing the general public when things look shady. But we can’t. When the media corporations and the powerful political institutions mutually benefit from manipulating information, we can simply not count on, or even hope for, getting the full picture.
This benefit for media corporations was at first unclear to me. An edited book about media reform helped me understand, that when the majority of media is owned by for profit corporations, they are by law required to put the profit of the corporation and investors above all other considerations. Getting profit is in direct contradiction to quality journalism (McChesney, Newman & Scott, 2002). When the priority, by law, is to not take the general public’s best interest at heart, but the corporation’s own profit making, it seems like a pretty clear recipe for disaster. Further, as the large media corporations gather more and more ownership in the industry, diversity of news plummets as power is shared by fewer and fewer. This power imbalance fosters conflicts of interest and disrupts newsgathering (www.fair.org). The informed participants in the media reform maintain that independent media is one major answer to the current for-profit system. The transition to independent media is “essential to a democratic society and that aggressive antitrust action must [also] be taken to break up monopolistic media conglomerates” (http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=7&issue_area_id=6).
When the purpose of the media is to make profit for the corporations, newsgathering, journaling ethics, and reporting priorities are all affected and show the public a very contrived view of… everything. We live with blindness. What we aren’t completely blind to, we are given a skewed view about. We also are influenced about what is important. What does that look like? Our priorities are completely manipulated. In order to make money, news companies perpetuate “gossip news.” Profit-driven news organizations are under great pressure to boost ratings by sensationalizing the news: focusing attention on lurid, highly emotional stories, often featuring a bizarre cast of characters and a gripping plot but devoid of significance to most people's lives. Major news outlets have become more and more dependent on these kind of tabloid soap operas to keep profits high (http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=7&issue_area_id=49).
Here’s where I tell you more about my cluelessness to most social issues. For quite some time now (years and years) I’ve openly stated my distaste of the “news” I never felt like I was getting the whole story, or learning about the things that really mattered. I always came away from the news with a bad feeling about the country, the world and most of the people in it. So I quit. I have often wondered why people really care about those tabloid type stories or the depressing tid-bits they get from the news anyway. Because in many cases they are set up to believe it is important and complete. The media goes to great efforts to maintain the front of integrity. Even after learning about how this works, I still wondered why it’s okay (and so easy) for me not to know about my own country, how I could operate not knowing the whole story about things in my own back yard or in other countries. Here it is. As Americans: We have the privilege of staying blind. Until recently I didn’t even know there were other people who felt like me about the news. Let alone an entire movement of people fighting for something better. In the meantime, though. It worked perfectly well for me to avoid news altogether. Why? How can someone operate with such oblivion and still lead a full, healthy, safe life? That is part of the privilege of living in the United States. Proof of this privilege is 5 lines up from here in this very paragraph. I said: “As Americans”… and you thought “from this country”. That’s what we say. We are American – no other explanation is needed. What about all of the other north (and south) American countries? Aren’t they American, too? Yes, but not the ones that matter. It sounds bad, but that is the nature of privilege.
Sociologist Michael Schwalbe describes, “American privileges: not having to bother, unless one chooses, to learn about other countries; and not having to bother, unless one chooses, to learn about how U.S. foreign policy affects people in other countries. A corollary privilege is to imagine that if people in other countries study us, it’s merely out of admiration for our way of life.” It’s true that people from countries that are on the other side of our privilege do not have the luxury to not know what is going on in our country or what we are doing – or not doing – around the world. Privilege prevents us from having to look at issues, and hence communicate better to fix them. “Combined with power, the result [of privilege] can be worse than innocent ignorance. It can be smug self-delusion, belief in the myth of one’s own superiority, and a presumed right to dictate morality to others.” That’s scary stuff. Privilege is belief in the myth of one’s own superiority? I don’t believe that I am superior. I didn’t think I thought that. But I still reap the benefits of American privilege every day. And privilege doesn’t stop there: “We also bear the cost of limiting our own humanity. To be human is to be able to extend compassion to others, to empathize with them, and to reflect honestly on how they are affected by our actions. Privilege keeps us from doing these things and thereby stunts our growth as human beings” (Schwalbe, M.2002).
Our consumer habits are a glaring example of our belief in our own superiority. Our country uses way more than our share of the resources of the world. We consume at an alarming rate. Our country alone uses enough resources to dry up the world’s riches before our time is up. Yet we still see sustainability and “living green” as an option. A chosen way of life. Soon the idea of sustainability, won’t be an idea, but a requirement. In many countries sustainability is already not an idea or a nifty new marketing word, but the only way to actually live. And for them, actually living is success.
Success?? What is success? I mean, to United State-ians. Stuff, it seems, is success. We measure our success, and happiness, according to how much stuff we have. This condition is called “Affluenza” (Appendix A). A term made popular in Untied States in 1997 by a PBS documentary. One of the main perpetuators of affluenza (perpetual consumerism in the name of happiness) is advertising. Advertising goes hand in hand with media. It’s how the media makes money. It is geared toward making people want to buy things. And more things. It perpetuates itself, people paying attention to media and feeling like they need even more stuff. It creates a vicious cycle that will never contribute to us feeling capable, competent, or content with how our lives. The advertising (that pays the media to operate and gain viewers) tells us to buy more stuff, and the media doesn’t give us any better way to spend our time or energy (like working toward social change or spending quality time doing quality activities) than watching TV and… consuming.
Something’s got to give. The media reform movement is fighting against its own conflict to gain enough informed public to really change the system. If our system of communication wasn’t broken, it wouldn’t be so hard to break through the media-contrived information barrier to tell people our vital need to fix it. Media reform is vitally necessary for many of the needed changes in our world. American privilege, sustainability, resource management, Affluenza, just to name a few. Actually, I’m hard pressed to name any social issue that real progress doesn’t depend on media reform. “No one thinks any longer that media reform is an issue to solve ‘after the revolution.’ Everyone understands that without media reform, there will be no revolution” (McChesney, R. 2005).
Media control began in second world war (McChesney, R., Newman, R. & Scott, B., 2005). The good news is that people have organized and been able to lead many social movements beginning mostly in the 1980’s and 90’s. In spite of the miserable media situation, real progress has begun to happen within the last 10 years. In their edited book about media reform they state: “The goal of the media reform movement is simply to make media policy a political issue. Once the matter is debated in the light of day, there will be progressive outcomes. This is the moment we are in now, where millions of Americans understand that there is nothing natural about the media system and they have a right and a responsibility to participate in policy deliberations.”
I can only imagine how much faster and more efficient our communities will move toward change when it’s not so easy, and perpetuated to stay in the dark about important issues.
After all, I still believe in the fundamental good of people and that if they really knew about the issues of the world and understood their impact on perpetuating the problems, change would be decidedly more forthcoming than it now seems. Everything is related to how we communicate, what we understand and know about the realities, needs and assets of our country. I envision a reality where news is about people surviving and thriving, about all the humanitarian work that is being done and needs to be done. True democracy, where people can make confidently informed decisions. A place where the element of capitalistic greed isn’t a filter for the knowledge available to the people.

















References

Dennis, E. (1988, March 15). American media and American values. Vital Speeches of the Day,
54(11), 349-352. Retrieved May 10, 2009, from Academic Search Complete database.

Graber, D. (2003, June). THE MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY: Beyond Myths and Stereotypes.
Annual Review of Political Science, 6(1), 139-160. Retrieved May 10, 2009, from
Academic Search Complete database.

McChesney, R., & Nichols, J. (2003, February 24). Media Democracy's Moment. Nation,
276(7), 16-20. Retrieved May 10, 2009, from Academic Search Complete database.

McChesney, R., Newman, R. & Scott, B. (Eds.). (2005). The future of media: Resistance and
reform in the 21st century. New York: Seven Stories Press.

Rothenberg, P.S. (Ed.). (2006). Beyond borders: Thinking critically about global issues. New
York: Worth Pub.

Schwalbe, M. (2002, October). The costs of American privilege. Retrieved May 7, 2009 from,
http://www.counterpunch.org/schwalbe1004.html

Website http://www.fair.org. Accessed May 8, 2009.






















Appendix A
Affluenza http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/affluenza.html
From the Affluenza Viewer's Guide
Affluenza: an unhappy condition of overload, debt, anxiety, and waste resulting from dogged pursuit of more.
Never has so much meant so little to so many.
Symptom: Swollen Expectations
We have twice as much stuff today as we did in 1958.
Dishwashers, color TV's, computers, VCRs...
"Can't have enough garage space!"
The average size of the garage in a new home today is 900 square feet -- the size of an entire modest house in the 1950's.
Symptom: Shopping Fever
On average, we shop an average of 6 hours a week and play with our children only 40 minutes a week.
In 1987, there were more malls than high schools in America.
The only way in which we increase consumption is that we save less and work more.
Symptom: Chronic Stress
Everything that I own owns me.
"We hear the same refrain all of the time from people. 'I have no life...I get up in the morning...get ready for work...there is day care, elder care, the commute.. I get home at night, there is laundry, bills to pay... I'm exhausted, I go to sleep I wake up and the routine begins the next day all over again.'"
Symptom: Hypercommercialism
By age 20, the average American has seen a million commercial messages.
2/3 of our newspapers and 40% of our mail is advertisements.
Advertisements attempt to "meet our non-material needs with material ends. If we buy a product, we are loved and accepted. The rest of the message is if we do NOT, we are not loveable or acceptable."
We have changed from citizens into consumers.
Symptom: Material Girl (and Boys)
Language from the "Kid Power"(!) Conference of Marketing Professionals:
"(There) is something to be said about branding kids early and owning them in that way."
"Antisocial behavior in the pursuit of a product is a good thing."
"Children are a cash crop to be harvested."
Symptom: Rash of Bankruptcies
Credit card debt is rising far faster than incomes. Over the past 10 years, credit card debt has increased 214 percent to $538 billion, while the median household income has risen only 36 percent. The average household now owes about $5,600 on plastic.
In 1998, more than 1.3 million Americans declared bankruptcy, more than graduated from college.
Symptom: Fractured Families
In 90% of divorce cases, arguments about money play a prominent role.
The Christian conservatives of "Focus on the Family" favor free market capitalism, but they fear we are creating a "throw-away" society. We always want something new and better. We throw away "used" spouses, friends, communities, and family members as well as used things.
Symptom: Social Scars
The gap between the rich and the poor in the US is the widest in any industrial country
Symptom: Resource Exhaustion
Since 1950, Americans have used more resources than everyone who ever lived before them.
The American tradition of frugality and self-reliance is being lost.
Symptom: Global Infection
At least 20% of the world's population lives in abject poverty, with hunger and disease.
People in developing countries see American TV, movies, etc. and would like to consume as much as Americans do.
Politicians urge that we double the size of the American economy every 15 years.
Prevention and Cure
Studies suggest the earth could sustain a standard of living nearly as comfortable as our own for every human being but that would demand social as well as personal change.
What personal changes would you be willing to make? What social changes would be required?
How can we encourage corporations to be more responsible to global human needs rather than profits?

Online resources
Center for a New American Dream
PBS Affluenza Site
Voluntary Simplicity

Critiques of Affluenza
Critics
Criticisms
Mental health professionals
People feel "empty inside".
People feel they never have enough time to enjoy life.
Life seems meaningless.
Environmentalists
Affluenza encourages waste.
Our planet can't support unlimited consumption.
Christians and other advocates of strong families
Affluenza fractures families. It teaches kids to disrespect their parents.
Affluenza encourages lifestyle of debt and worry.
Affluenza causes people to neglect their neighbors and communities.
Moral philosophers
Affluenza encourages the pursuit of worthless things.
Affluenza encourages satisfaction of desire at the expense of reason.
Marxists
Mass consumption distributes wealth inequitably; only stockholders and bankers make big money.
Third World people end up worst off.