Since Orwell’s 1984, politics and their talking heads (and I don’t mean the defunct ’80s one-hit wonder) have long been labeled “big brother.” Especially in today’s atmosphere of widely conflicting political views where so much attention is paid to the big brother’s every twitch and twitch, very little attention is paid to his mom. The media has become such a pervasive force in our daily entourage, indeed in the very fabric of our lives, that it is treated as just another mundane phenomenon, much like the weather or the result of a rumor about your neighbors. ; in other words, the information is received and barely digested before being discarded. The media is not criticized with the refined and sensitive manufacturing tools that are required when dealing with such a powerful and influential entity. It’s not that thinking men and women aren’t constantly on the lookout for outside perspectives; when their schedules allow, that is. Let’s be honest, most of the time people are too engrossed in their pursuit of financial superiority and emotional fulfillment, as they should, to watch the media for the social, political, and financial vacuum that it is. What happened to personal opinion and social perspective? (Without being tagged with the often smile-inducing, pity-inducing catchphrase. To consider the information for yourself and filter it through your own personal beliefs and morals, allowing for critical digestion and insight. magnified inspection of the barrage of opinions that bombard our already overloaded conscience?
Let’s first understand the meaning of the word itself, since the successful solution of any puzzle lies in its basic definition and fundamental rules. The dictionary on my tired desk describes the media as “the means of communication, such as radio and television, newspapers and magazines, that widely reach or influence people.” Media is a word derived from the root word “medium”, intended to describe the intermediary or method of relating information from one point to another through the use of a “medium” such as newspaper, radio or television , etc. Tuning into CNN or FOX NEWS is proof enough that this is no longer the case, as these larger media entities do not simply act as a venue for information, but go a step further by producing the product they are selling, instead of just relating. which is what most people still think their “news” are doing. We always hear the famous catchphrase of “absolute power, corrupt absolutely” when talking about big brother, but just like the power of representative rule, the power of representative influence is easily corruptible and corruptible. Media giants like these are divisions of much larger corporate entities like AOL/Time Warner and News CORP. to name a few. Corporations do business, and if we consider The Banker’s Etiquette (circa. 1778), “First Rule of Business, Protect Your Investment,” the primary goal of these organizations is to make money, not to serve a profit-hungry public. information with direct information. and truthful news.
As a few weeks of living in the world can reveal, money and truth have a way of coming into conflict. Consider this scenario involving the fictional ABN (The Always Broadcasting Network) station: ABN’s gigantic bureaucratic infrastructure of divisions and district offices, not to mention financial entities and economic vacuums, all that sustain a growing corporation healthy and happy is having a tough year meeting his bloated operating budget and he needs the fictional corporate sponsor All-Mart’s account. All-Mart is looking to branch out its foreign operations into third world countries as part of its globalization strategy, but one of the countries on its (for lack of a better word) blacklist is currently at war with home. ABN country. Now if a representative of All-Mart. politely asks an ABN official to tone down the severity of his war broadcast in an effort to prevent investors nervous of All-Mart’s globalization strategy from fleeing in panic at the thought of stepping into a bathroom of blood, will that ABN representative do it? pounding on the desk in an incredulous display of moral bewilderment, and telling the All-Mart clerk to get his sticky fingers out of his office or just to find out what can be done about the difficulty your business partner is experiencing? Who can really say? But it’s a safe bet that both individuals and corporations can often feel a debt of gratitude, if not loyalty, to their source(s) of income and when any entity that bears a high degree of responsibility to the As the public faces between continuing to fulfill that responsibility or continuing the pursuit of its own existence, longevity must play a greater role in corporate mandates and overall strategy. It is a brutal reality and fundamental law of any living organism to feel the need to protect its own existence above all else.
Let’s shift our attention away from ABN’s moral dilemma (morality and finances often create a lot of confusion and consideration, a difficult one indeed) and look at other forms of media. The modern phenomenon of “convenience” through electronic devices such as mp3 players, PDAs, Blackberries, portable DVDs, laptops, cell phones, etc. and message-based media that transmit, receive, download, upload, and share files, such as music, movies, TV shows, and radio broadcasts. “Technology,” as ALI G so aptly coined it, opens up opportunities for obviously unprecedented amounts of communication and how Big Mother’s various media tell us how to wear, what to drive, where to work, how to think, what to eat, where to go holidays and who to befriend and hang out with (yes, who you hang out with can be easily broken down into a series of magazine ads and wild sociological “studies”) one can’t help but feel a little punk. The big mom is a demanding and controlling mother with many unrealistic expectations and few rewards. Big Mother doesn’t mean to abuse you, but she mentally continues to do it by ignoring your personal needs, despite how much she cares. In the global village of the information age, the main shack belongs to Big Momma and no one is safe from her influence, let alone her uncaring demands. TRUE.
No matter the situation, it’s clear that the media as a whole isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, as even Medea, Euripides’ child-killing mother, said, “I’m the mother of your children. Where can I fly, since all Greece hates the barbarian? Before you tune out, as years of slavish acquiescence have reduced your attention span to a small knot that doesn’t quite grab you, consider this. Medea killed her own children in a fit of rage; Doesn’t the media kill our individuality and personal beliefs, not to mention our thought processes a little bit every day? She is constantly and eternally present: scolding our failures, blaming us into submission, reminding us of our weaknesses, displaying her power and glamour, and very rarely rewarding the chosen among us by including them as part of the family (the lucky ones who land). in-demand jobs in radio, music, advertising, marketing, film and television). Sure it’s easy to see the media as a demanding, judgmental, often insincere, tyrannical, insensitive, controlling and self-righteous mother who often claims and pretends to have our best interests at heart, but she loses sight of just that.
Rest assured there is hope, as any orphaned and abused child can support, when one comes from a home of poor parents, a solution can be achieved. Be her own mother by planting the seeds of parenting, watering them instead of watching them grow into bountiful plants of self-satisfaction. It sounds like an everyday statement, but it is a plausible solution to combat the onslaught of conventionalism and unconventionality (which has become a common mindset). For example, instead of letting Big Mother tell you who to date, she looks at your situation and genuinely deduces the qualities you want your life partner to have. Free yourself from the stigma and reliance on self-description and self-definition from outside sources by controlling your own thinking. Has it not been said that you can either command yourself or be commanded by others? Get informed by reading books, magazines and newspapers, listening to music, watching movies and getting what benefits you from them. It is not what should benefit you. If life is a fast roller coaster, do we want to cling to the safety bar, hunched over in fear as we watch the person next to us throw their hands in the air, whooping with joy and excitement when our deepest instincts say so? you do the same?
Big Brother is always watching while Big Mother is always instructing and they will continue to do so until the latest episode of The Simpsons aka eternity but we won’t be there to see it that day. Let’s just enjoy the ride while it lasts in the way we feel we need to and ignore the complaints of a Mother who doesn’t understand what it’s like to be us. As anyone can tell us about parenting, it is the wisest children who take the good from their parents and discard the bad. smart kids.