The media as a great mother

Ever since Orwell’s 1984, politics and its talking heads (and I don’t mean the defunct one-hit wonder of the ’80s) have long been labeled “big brother.” Especially in today’s atmosphere of very opposing political views where so much attention is focused on the older brother’s every tick and move, very little attention is paid to his mom. The media has become such an all-encompassing force in our daily entourage, indeed 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, information is received and barely digested before being discarded. There is no criticizing the media 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, more often than not, people are too engrossed in their quest for financial superiority and emotional fulfillment, as they should be, to see 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 and pity-inducing “liberal” catchphrase. To consider the information for yourself and filter it through your own personal beliefs and morals, allowing for critical digestion and magnified inspection of the barrage of opinions that bombard our already overtaxed conscience?

Let’s first understand the meaning of the word itself, since the successful solution of any riddle lies in its basic definition and fundamental rules. The dictionary that occupies my exhausted desk describes mass media as “the means of communication, such as radio and television, newspapers and magazines, that reach or widely influence people.” Media is a word that is derived from the root of the 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 in to 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 place for information, but go one step further by producing the product they are selling, rather than just relating. which is what most people still think their “news” is doing. We always hear the famous catchphrase of “absolute power, absolutely corrupts” 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 what The Banker Etiquette (circa 1778) says, “First Rule of Business, Protect Your Investment,” the primary purpose of these organizations is to make money, not to cater to a money-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 conflicting. Consider this hypothetical scenario involving the fictional station of ABN (The Always Broadcasting Network): the gigantic bureaucratic infrastructure of ABN divisions and district offices, not to mention financial entities and economic vacuums, all that keep a corporation growing healthy and happy is having a tough year meeting your bloated operating budget and you need the account of the fictional corporate sponsor All-Mart. 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. country of ABN. Now if an All-Mart rep. politely asks an ABN official to tone down the sternness of his war broadcast in an effort to prevent investors nervous of All-Mart’s globalization strategy from panicking at the thought of walking into a bathroom. of blood, will that ABN representative do it? pounding on the desk in an incredulous display of moral embarrassment, and telling the All-Mart official to get his sticky fingers out of his office or just investigate what can be done about the difficulty your business partner is experiencing? Who can really tell? But it’s a safe bet that individuals and corporations alike 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 public is faced with continuing to fulfill that responsibility or continuing to search for its own existence, longevity must play a larger 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 actually) and look at other forms of media. The modern phenomenon of “convenience” through electronic devices such as mp3 players, PDAs, Blackberries, portable DVD players, 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 dress, what to drive, where to work, how to think, what to eat, where to party. vacations and who to befriend and date (yes, who you date can easily be broken down into a series of magazine ads and wacky sociological “studies”) one can’t help but feel a little punk. The big mom is a demanding and controlling mom with many unrealistic expectations and few rewards. Big Mother has no intention of abusing you, but she continues to do so mentally 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 nonchalant demands. TRUE.

No matter the situation, it’s clear the media as a whole isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, as even Medea, Euripides’ child-murdering mother, said, “I am the mother of your children. Where can I fly, Since all of Greece hates the barbarian? Before you tune out, since years of slavish acquiescence have reduced your attention span to a little knot that won’t catch you, consider this. Medea killed her own children of hers in a fit of rage; Doesn’t the media kill our individuality and personal beliefs, not to mention our thought processes a little 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). Surely it’s easy to see the media as a demanding, critical, often insincere, tyrannical, insensitive, controlling, sanctimonious 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 poor parent home 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 anti-conventionalism (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. Break free from the stigma and reliance on self-description and self-definition from outside sources by controlling your own thinking. Hasn’t it been said that you can either boss yourself or be bossed by others? Find out 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 up in the air, screaming with joy and excitement when our deepest instincts say so? do you do the same?

Big Brother is always watching while Big Mother is always instructing and they will continue to do so until the last 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 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.