The Gray Conservative said...
I'm all over this topic. Two of my favorites:
Corporate Media and the Threat to Democracy (Open Media Pamphlet Series)
Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
Monday, May 05, 2008
Rupert Murdoch. Liberal, Conservative. Republican. Democrat. Doesn't Matter. Ultimately, You Think What He Wants You To Think
The Gray Conservative said...
I'm all over this topic. Two of my favorites: Corporate Media and the Threat to Democracy (Open Media Pamphlet Series) Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
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I'm all over this topic. Two of my favorites:
Corporate Media and the Threat to Democracy (Open Media Pamphlet Series)
Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
Postman, p. 103:
This perception of a news show as a stylized dramatic performance whose content has been staged largely to entertain is reinforced by several other features, including the fact that the average length of any story is forty-five seconds. While brevity does not always suggest triviality, in this case it clearly does. It is simply not possible to convey a sense of seriousness about any event if its implications are exhausted in less then one minute's time. In fact, it is quite obvious that TV news has no intention of suggesting that any story has any implications, for that would require viewers to continue to think about it when it is done and therefore obstruct their attending to the next story that waits panting in the wings. In any case, viewers are not provided with much opportunity to be distracted from the next story since in all likelihood it will consist of some film footage. Pictures have little difficulty in overwhelming words, and short-circuiting introspection. As a television producer, you would be certain to give both prominence and precedence to any event for which there is some sort of visual documentation. A suspected killer being brought into a police station, the angry face of a cheated customer, a barrel going over Niagra Falls (with a person alleged to be in it), the President disembarking from a helicopter on the White House lawn—these are always fascinating or amusing, and easily satisfy the requirements of an entertaining show. It is, of course not necessary that the visuals actually document the point of a story. Neither is it necessary to explain why such images are intruding themselves on the public consciousness. Film footage justifies itself, as every television producer well knows. It is also of considerable help in maintaining a high level of unreality that the newscasters do not pause to grimace or shiver when they speak their prefaces or epilogs to the film clips. Indeed, many newscasters do not appear to grasp the meaning of what they are saying, and some hold to a fixed and ingratiating enthusiasm as they report on earthquakes, mass killings and other disasters. Viewers would be quite concerned by any show of concern or terror on the part of the newscasters in the "Now ...this" culture, and they expect the newscaster to play out his or her role as a character who is marginally serious but who stays well clear of an authentic understanding.
Wow.
Nice piece Gray.
I'm reading this to my father who is vacationing in Europe as we blog.
He's applauding enthusiastically.
Well done.
Now put it all together;
The Gospel of Consumption
The Unbearable Cost of Warsocialism
The Strange History of Economics
Rockefellers and ExxonMobil
and there's no mistaking the nature and reality of the beast. It's not even within reach of the wealthiest and most powerful members of this society to put the train back on its tracks.
Corporate Fascism runs America.
Democracy is a term that does not mean shit.
American so called democracy halted by 1948.
Democracy any way is a social contract civil slave contract.
And Middle Americans really still think that Zionist Jews don't disproportionately run the media??? Including neocon propaganda centers like FAUX News?
Lolz...
This is the scariest issue on earth, IMO. We have nowhere to get real information - it's like being illiterate.
This is the scariest issue on earth, IMO. We have nowhere to get real information - it's like being illiterate.
We have nowhere to get real information - it's like being illiterate.
Actually, my friend, we do. It's the blogosphere. We're more literate thanks to the blogosphere than we are with bullshit public schools and corporate controlled media.
A new social movement must start now based on viable solutions.
Real information is available but is difficult because of the trance like sleep many Americans are under.
Look in the mirror.
The only people that run our life is our selves. It is possible to expose this system for what it is. Education does that.
Jews Christians or Hindu's..?
That is all bullshit.
Corporate Fascism is run by all parties and religions.
Get ready for major conflict and the crash test.
Then all these so called bullshit religions are going to fight it out.
Chaos results and then change for better or worse.
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