News and the Media

Hey guys! The topic of conversation today is the media and how it manipulates the public. There are about six major media conglomerates that own all kinds of newspapers, magazines, television channels, radio stations and movie studios. These conglomerates include Disney, Viacom, Time Warner, News Corp, Sony Corp and Vivendi. In the video Minority Media by Bill Moyers, it showed how the FCC is wanting to make it possible for these conglomerates to own even more media outlets than they all ready do making it even harder for other people, who are not as capable to purchase them, to be able to have their voice heard. This is a big issue for minorities. They feel as if they are not having their voices heard and the topics that they find important on not being covered by these huge conglomerates who only air what they feel is news. Obviously news is very biased and many media outlets portray minorities as inferior or "thugs, hoes, pimps and gangsters". There are plenty of white people out there that could be stereotyped with those terms as well, but you don't ever see it because most of these conglomerates are owned by white people. I believe that the news has become a lot more open on airing news about minorities since the election of a half black president. Just electing a half black president was a huge step for America and it helped us to realize that this world does not revolve around just the white community. I feel like many news outlets are so hypocritical because what is big news 10 years ago is looked at now and barely even publicized. For instance, the huge protest against the war in Iraq that took place in six of the United States big cities. Back in the 1960's opposition to war was a huge story and thousands of protestors sat outside of the Pentagon trying to make it known that war needed to end in Viet Nam. Why was it news then to show these protests? Why isn't it now? These conglomerates are pretty much unstoppable and there will never be a time where we can make them broadcast what WE want them to broadcast. What we can do is write letters to the FCC, state legislatures and even to these huge conglomerates telling them what WE DO WANT TO HEAR about in the news and hope that they listen the public's voices. Although the interests of people of color are everyone's interests, it is good that people of color get out there and create their own media outlets because it looks like it will be a long time until the media conglomerates make minority news a major part of what they cover. Like WVON in Chicago, although they are not some huge company, they broadcast stories that many people want to hear in many communities and listeners are very grateful for it. They say that if you want something done you have to be proactive about it. If you just sit around hoping that one day things will change, it won't. Just like the Civil Rights Movement and Martin Luther King Jr., people made history and changed major things in communities nationwide just by being proactive and going out there everyday trying to make their voice heard. One little voice can make all the difference if they care that much about a topic. For instance, many people wanted the war in Iraq to come to an end, so we elected a Democratic president who also wanted the war to end and now there is a light at the end of the tunnel. People wanted change and they got change, but they didn't sit around on their butts complaining about it, they went out and did something about it. If there is one thing I hate the most is someone that sits around and complains about issues and doesn't try to do anything to make the issue better.
As for the media nowadays, they have done a pretty good job of showing coverage of Proposition Eight news. Even though most of the events were taking place on the East and West coasts, we still heard all about it in Oklahoma. It was newsworthy and people needed to hear about it, and it was heard nationwide. The one thing that I think made it so widely known was the celebrity opposition to it. I feel like once a celebrity is thrown into the mix everyone wants to know more about the event. I believe that the media was beneficial to the Civil Rights Movement. If there hadn't of been that much coverage I don't think there would ever have been any progression in the seeking of rights for the minority groups. The media was always showing interviews and speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. and I think that if they hadn't of aired these events, the United States might be completely different today. I feel that if the Civil Rights Movement didn't get the coverage that it did, there still would be segregation and all the other bad events that went along with the events of that time period. Media coverage can be a great thing IF and WHEN they do their job correctly. Being biased and hypocritical never did anything good for anyone.
In one of the videos we were supposed to watch it talked about how at the beginning of the war the media was urged not to show a lot of coverage of what was actually going on in Iraq. I think that we need to see everything that goes on. I think that although a lot of it may be hard to handle, we cannot grasp the seriousness of what is actually going on overseas and until we REALLY know we don't have a right to sit back and give our opinions that may not even be correct. People have a lot of opinions and I feel like a lot of the time they need to just keep them to themselves.
I feel like you have heard my thoughts now even though it all might sounds like a bunch of jibberish, but these are my thoughts even if they may not be your own. Everyone has the right to their opinion (to an extent). Ha ha.

Here are some videos that I like that you might enjoy as well!