Because of advances in technology news from around the world is now available to everyone just minutes after it happens. �Those who read, view or listen to information will need the skills to allow them to perceive how the media have the power to create values and influence behavior,� says Anthony Vladu a media literacy teacher from New York. (Vladu, 2003) Being media literate is an important skill to have. All the media that we see every day is ultimately controlled by less then half a dozen people. That means that everything we see is controlled by less than twelve people. Does that mean that we are getting only the opinions of those twelve people? No, it doesn�t but, it does mean that they have the ability to censor the information we get, and chose what we don�t get. Being media literate helps us to understand this and it teaches where we can look to get alterative information, mostly in the form of websites like www.newswatch.com, and www.adbusters.com. It helps us to understand that the media have influence on everything including politics, social change and even which issue we chose to address. The media have the ability to make one presidential contender look good, and another look bad, regardless of how they really are. They may promote the upper class, white candidate who�s wife has been to the hospital several times with bruises and broken bones, while on the other hand they defame and slander the black candidate who has a minor police record from twenty years ago but otherwise has an excellent record and wonderful ideals. Media literate people know that the media have the ability to do this and look for other, less mainstream sources. They also realize that the all media want you for something and that all media is telling you something. The media is not there for you, they are driven by advertising and the uncontrollable need to make money. In his book The Media Monopoly, Ben Badikian asks, �Why do corporations fight for so much dominance, spending most of their executive time and billions of dollars in ferocious bidding battles, mergers, acquisitions, leveraged buyouts and takeovers? The answer is and ancient one; money and influence. (Bagdikian, 2000, p.5) Each type of media is structured to be pleasing to the consumer and each type of media can take the same thing and report or display it in a different way and in a different light. It is not what is being reported on that is changing, it is how it is being reported. One thing to understand about media, says Anthony Vladu, a media literacy instructor, is that, �The media are responsible for the majority of the observations and experiences from which we build up our personal understandings of the world and how it works, thus the media, to a great extent give us our sense of reality.� (Vladu, 2003) However, just because we all see the same media doesn�t mean that everyone has the same reality, everyone looks at and interprets media differently. The media give us the information that we base our reality on, but everyone sees and interprets the media differently therefore, everyone has a different reality.