Media Manipulation

By Simeon | September 2, 2005 2:22 PM | Comments (2)

Journalism:: a style of writing for presenting bare facts to describe news events
Media:: Media, journalists, journalism, reporters, editors, newspapers, radio, television, etc.
Biased:: one-sided, excessively devoted to one faction

What do you learn from an introductory journalism class? "Present only the facts." You would think that members of the international mass media would remember one of their first lessons? Hmm, I don't really remember much of Mr. Stow's History class except that weird girl Emily. Oh yea, all my friends were there except we weren't friends at that time (High, Pat, etc.). I guess college was just a formality on the path to distorting the public. I do have be fair. Some portions of media coverage are slugged with Opinion/Editorial headings. We should treat these for what they are, bias. Besides that, I think its very hard to filter the information that bombards your ears and eyes. Unless you have been privy to information about a news organization's stance, I bet you'll be real lost. Let's take a look at Washington D.C. Their are two main papers; The Washington Post and The Washington Times. The first is considered liberal, and the second is considered conservative. Therefore, you can pick and choose your bias. The same goes for national cable television. Fox News is considered conservative while CNN has a touch of liberalism. An individual can step back and decide which news outlet is good for them. To be fair even more, it seems hard for any type of media to make head or tails of the information they are fed. This information can come from members of the government, lobbyists, public relations professionals, and the public. How can each of these entities not have an opinion? Therefore, the facts are rooted in an opinion. Crazy isn't it? I have had a problem with forming my own personal opinion from the media. Then again, its hard to find information from the source. I don't have stringers in Afghanistan working for simeons.net. Needless to say, I am not looking forward to another election in a few years. Maybe, I'll just vote for Christopher Walken. Sometimes, manipulation is blatantly conducted to prove a parties' point. This week, I heard a song on WRNR that followed this model. Its called "Imagine This" by Wax Audio. It took a bit of googling to find information on the song. Basically, its a mash up of John Lennon's masterpiece as sung by George W. Bush. I thought it was an ingenious piece of work. It seems that Wax Audio's only goal is too produce these types of tracks.

"Wax Audio was born from the desire to squeeze back into the ether elements of absorbed mass-media, captured, transfigured and promulgated with hardware & software specifically designed to aid this practice, yet ironically made available with the legal obligation not to do so."

All the work (Two EPs) is available for free in mp3 format on the site. Tom Compagnoni, Wax Audio producer, uses his talents to convey his strong ideas. I don't agree with everything he is presenting, but its fun to listen. His technique is one not so widespread. He is biased toward one side, but uses words of the opposite side to present his ideas. Interesting. Again, its hard to wade through the muck that is media. In a perfect world, we would have a clear idea of the truth. We would be able to make informed decisions without much effort. We'd be free to go on with our daily lives thinking we made a good decision. This just isn't the situation. A decision can be second guessed or founded from one report to another. As media grows and the information age rushes forward, I think it will become increasingly harder for the average citizen. Yippie.