The Media

"Freedom of the press is freedom for the people"

This is a notion upon which we in the Western world pride ourselves. Indeed, it is such an integral part of our democratic system that we use it as criteria in judging the freedom of other countries. Come what may, the western media is a very powerful entity indeed. A form of �people�s propaganda,� the press especially has the power to influence public opinion and, in turn, influence the government on the bandwagon of the �public opinion� that they have created. Media barons such as Rupert Murdoch can influence decisions in The Commons, simply by launching a campaign in his newspaper, The Sun. It is perhaps a sad reflection upon human nature but people, for the most part DO believe everything they read in the papers. Furthermore, they begin to adopt the same political slant, albeit subliminally, as their regular paper. This slow, doctored process can cause landslides in the general elections� it is no coincidence or secret that in recent years, the collective political alliances of the tabloids have more often than not resulted in a mirrored election outcome. Any who doubt the power of the media in general should examine the impact, and indeed utter monopoly of information, it has on their lives. We are dependent upon the media for knowledge of everything outside of our tiny spectrum of every day experience. Consider for a minute exactly what this entails. For further assistance, consider the level of information and understanding amongst the people of Mediaeval Europe, for whom the only media was word of mouth. The ignorance was such in these times that it was not until the Renaissance (and the invention of the printing press) that any progression of significance was made in the development of politics, religion, science, art or culture.

I am no major sceptic or conspiracy theorist but it is hard not to wonder every now and then whether or not this is all just a big con. I mentioned earlier that the media has power over the government, but who�s to say that the government does not instead have utter control over the media? How do you think we all found out about Rupert Murdoch, or the election figures or the �freedom� the press enjoys? If the media is controlled then all of this could easily be fabricated to create an illusion of freedom. We often hear about the media restrictions of other countries such as Iraq, Serbia, the former USSR and many more countries and we usually hear about them when it suits our governments to make them seem like the �bad guys�. Who is to say then, that the government is not controlling the media so that we, the possible bad guys, seem righteous in bombing Baghdad or invading Kosovo. With the illusion of freedom, such control is almost infallible as it is very seldom questioned. If the press were truly free, perhaps the report of the Balkans conflict would read, �NATO troops, today entered the province of Kosovo to secure farming land for the people of Albania. Payment in gold bullion was received by the agency for services rendered.� As it happens, NATO is made out as the righteous party, against ethnic cleansing. The report of press restrictions in Belgrade becomes an interesting sideline. Delicious in irony and powerful in condemnation, it has the dual effect of making the enemy out to be even worse, whilst enforcing the possibly false point that we are better off.

The fact is, we simply do not know; by making a big deal of NOT censoring articles such as this, the government avoids suspicion and the illusion is upheld with no one truly believing the alternative.

Furthermore, who�s to say that it does not go even deeper than this? Perhaps not quite on the level of The Truman Show but we have no individual proof that the world is any bigger than what we personally have seen. All concept of distance is lost on an aircraft, so who�s to say that the world is any bigger than a few hundred miles in diameter? And who is to say that the majority of the world is not somehow fabricated by our government for some reason known only to them?

All of this is of course merely hypothetical speculation. Anyone who truly believes there is a huge conspiracy out there faces severe implications to their mental stability. However, such frivolous speculation does stand to outline the immense importance and power the media has over our lives and just how trusting of it we are.

I hope that you go away from reading this article and, for a while at least, you really don�t believe quiet everything you read in the papers. - Black Sheep 2000