If I hear one more person refer to “the media” as a monolith, I’m going to… to….
Really, we know better than this, don’t we? There is no such thing as “the media” or “the mainstream media” and here’s why: Each media outlet is individually bought and paid for by their advertisers. Yeah, sure they have bias. Yeah sure they have leadership with leanings. Yeah sure they have to fill up an endless news cycle with commentary, because there are only just so many pertinent facts that matter.
But here’s the thing. They are not organized, managed or controlled en masse by a group of dark figures in a strategic way. The only conspiracy is by the advertisers and the consumers, greedily agreeing to buy more stuff to keep more TV and businesses shooting ads at us from every corner of the web. There is no conspiracy. There is only money. And You, the Consumer.
So, if you don’t like the media you are hearing, turn it off. Buy something different. Stop supporting their advertisers, or better yet, WRITE to their advertisers and tell them why you will not consume that anymore.
If you or someone you know is so paranoid that you think a conspiracy of ‘elite media’ could 100% control the discourse by their secret meetings that somehow never leaked…. perhaps you need to think again. There is no secret to how they operate. They find a need—in us— to have more, feel more, get more informed or engaged, then they fill it. And it works, or we don’t work, and we get more complacent and more likely to rant. But we always keep on buying stuff. Easy. Peasy.
And the “they” is varied: there is USA Today, New York Times, Mother Jones, CNN, The Hill, NPR, Fox News, Breitbart and more…. some of these you like some you hate. Some fill around the facts with commentary that leans left, some that leans right, some is just plain cruel or kooky and some is strikingly fact-less. And some just regurgitate the junior-high-style stories of who-said-what tweetery conversations. Aha! The he said-she-said machinations of social exploration writ large is great filler.
And speaking of social machinations, there are actual, bona fide conspiratorial influences working on you too. And they are most likely to be found in social media. They have several sources, some of which are proven to be the Russians, alt right, and their wild left-wing counterparts (haven’t yet seen this, so I guess I’ll have to believe you that they exist), that pay to run campaigns to innudate you with messages.
Then of course, the algorithm slams it into your consciousness. Well, social media is the wild west of information with no mission other than to spread. All is run by “you” theoretically, except that most of “you” are what is actually for sale: you’ve become the Consumed not the Consumer.
A data point and easy mark.
So, please to God stop referring to “the media.” This is a widely varied, widely-funded group of businesses with members with about as much integrity as any other business. Ahem. They are funded only by YOU and how you spend your mental energy and economic chits.
And as for social media. It is funded by how much you stay in front of it, reading and sharing the exciting lies it tells you. Sure you can catch up with Aunt Shirley, and that is cool. But you can also form or echo endlessly your world view, and get more disenfranchised from real people who think a little differently than you. Social media can easily be waayyyy less true and also much easier to be controlled by shadowy characters. It runs on interest and emotion, and nothing sells more than outrage and anger.