media

[rowens]

From what I see the media gives people what they want. Violent stories stimulate and entertain people; and many are secretly glad that these violent attacks take place. They're horrified and gratified at the same time.

I don't think the killers are glorified, at least not these recent gunmen. They're embarrassing losers that committed desperate, foolish actions. But people do like to pour abuse on them, or have a good laugh at them.

People like to know about the victims too. And media does its job. As I know from experience, people don't like having to discuss important issues in depth, but they do like to know what has happened, and to be stimulated by sorrow, anger, fear, and ridicule.

The media puts issues into a box that's accessible in the way that entertainment is. They get two or three so-called experts together, and give them about eight minutes altogether to speak their mind and discuss things with each other. And whenever one person is on the verge of clarifying his point of view, the moderator switches over to another speaker: and from the chopped up thirty second comments, they precede to argue with each other.

The doctors and other experts often sound just as confused as the reporters and bystanders about the subjects they're talking about. And the Internet is so full of misinformation and confused reports and facts that it's hard to know what's what unless you dedicate hours every week trying to get a handle on all the different aspects of things.

I think people should cut their tvs off, take their ipod earphones off, turn off their cellphones, and stop being pressured by confusing media while hiding their embarrassing and scary thoughts and feelings from everyone.

I used to watch children shows with my sisters. And most of them are about teenagers that look like models insulting and making fun of the other people around them, while dealing with cellphone problems, social media networks, their sense of fashion, and high school squabbles. And these tv shows are as much commercials for products as the commercial breaks are.

Young people are brought up to feel they are better or worse than others. The people are afraid and insecure either way, and they have no other experiences to look to but these popular media outlets. And their families watch and are taken in my the same programs.

You can hear a teenager saying how much they respect and admire people that are different, or understand that some people have problems beyond their control. But those kids have their own narrow points of view about "respect", "admiration", and "being different".

And with these social networks merging with other media networks, there's not much difference between any of it.

This isn't true of everyone. But those that have public platform and that are projected into the lives of the mass majorities have the most influence. And when others seek their own platforms, they usually work in the same patterns.

[billy]

in the other thread mark put up a freeman quote that ended instead of pointing to gun law, turn off the news i think that's what many people would prefer. that the news of these sort of actions are NEVER shown. it would mean the spotlight wouldn't shine on such matters. i think the news should be just that, "the news" as it is news has become some kind of show. they're asking grieving parents what they think and how they feel. they intrude when they should step back. tell how many were shot and how old they are but i'm sick of seeing the names of all the victims being continuously screened and voiced. they know who died, they know who killed them. why are all these reporters dragging this shit out.
no one knows why he did it unless he left a note. i want to know what's going on in the world. what i don't want is all the pathetic story lines they follow when something like this happens. the news (media) should put the news in boxes, shouldn't judge, all they should do is tell the news in as factual way as possible.

i see talk of people using the news as a platform in order to outdo the latest atrocity. do we also close down newspapers. i see talk of govs being to pc yet the same people are trying to tell people what they should and shouldn't watch. mark blames the media for these latest deaths and says, or infers, close down the media, regulate the media. god forbid the same is done with weapons.

wacko's will be wacko whatever the media. do we really think these things won't happen if they're not reported in the media? sorry but to do so would be a mistake. people going apeshit and killing lots of other people is often a byproduct of an affected mind. if it wasn't reported on tv it would be in the tabloids. you would not only have to turn off the news, you'd have to close down all the press. i'm personally sick of seeing the same thing over and over when i switch the news on, i'm turning it on less and less.

a good mental health programme with proper care to peoples rights would help but beware not to bully the innocent people just because they don't fit in.

[srijantje]

remember ronald reagan who emptied the nut houses,instead of raising taxes for the rich

[rowens]

I'm interested in media and other influences, and whatever people think, outside of just the gun laws and mass shootings. Any and all ideas about media in all its forms. Music, Fashion, Movies, Games, Social Media, TV, Books, Adverts, any of it. And their effects. Even the effects of the flashing TV screen itself. I'm sure many people here have opinions on more than just the news. I guess I picked the wrong day to go into the subject, with all the talk of mass shooting on my mind.

[cidermaid]

Hi Rowan,
I think this is a really interesting thought to follow. I wonder what the differing childhood experience has been if you a drew a dividing line between those born say over 25yrs ago and those in the last 20 (I might have got my divide a bit off but there will I believe be a clear divide if this is assessed alongside the changes in media presentation and content).
As a child of the 60's I hardly spent any time in the house. There was one or two Saturday programmes that I occasionally watched and on a Saturday night we used to sit as a family and select (well mum or Dad did) something suitable normally a comedy, certainly nothing with swearing or unseemly behaviour. The 6pm news was something to be taken in and respected as a credible source of information. (Although spin had been in use during the war, it was not widely perceived as a manipulator of the public news). I spend my days wandering loose around the area and getting up to all sorts of dangerous activities (that today would have a child in court or counselling and certainly would have the parents being investigated by child authorities) Everywhere was dangerous, the school playground had play bars and swings with tarmac underneath. One child did die from our village from a accident on a farm. But I lived in wonderful ignorance of the hundreds of other tragedies that occurred around the world or even in a town 20 miles away. The only time I felt the fear of the evil in our society was when the daughter of the bus company that drove me to secondary school was kidnapped and held for weeks before suffering some dreadful end. The news reported that she was snatched from her bedroom and after this I was a bit paranoid for a few weeks about keeping the window locked regardless of the weather. But my point is in all this reminiscing that, apart for really local news our community did not feel the need to particularly know about all the other tragedies. There were plenty of charitable events to raise funds for starving children or homeless people or perhaps some victims of a natural disaster, these things still were noted and acted upon, but the rest of it was considered sort of not relevant to our lives.
This was a community attitude that I’m describing here from my childhood memories of such. I don't think that people didn't care and I don't think that there was less crime (although I think that the scale of the violence in crime has definably gone up and I think this is directly attributable to media coverage)...it was just that it was considered bad form, inappropriate and intrusive to delve into the misfortune of others. (This was true for shame based activities and pain based occurrences).
For my two penny worth, I think that what has happened with the rise of the influence and usage of the media based entertainments is that people have got normalised and desensitised to violence and antisocial behaviour. In the UK there is a wide selection of family / life dramas and sitcoms and all of them portray a grungy, abusive, foul-mouthed and violent society and this is then what people come to look upon and emulate as normal and acceptable. These programmes started of as fairly tame by today’s standards, but as the population that viewed these programmes matched their moral standards and expectations to those of the show then the producers sunk to new lows in order to have the best sock value story to entice their viewers to stay with their show. Things that I knew about (such as two girls kissing and being lesbians) and were the subject of shameful bad taste jokes behind the shed, have now become normalised for any child watching a school drama available for viewing at the tea time slot. People should have a right to choose how they live their lives, but I don't want it to be forced on me or my family and then be told this is the new normal that I have to enjoy. I think the media tried to force too many agendas that have been foistered though the system motivated by money or power / politics. I have mostly opted out of watching TV. I hardly ever watch the news or buy a paper because I don't like or trust the information I'm fed as being truthful. The media has become too much of a political animal for my taste. I have come to accept that I am now no longer current and as such I have opted out and to some extent this is wrong in that I have abandoned my obligations to watch and monitor the world around me and to speak in season as my personal moral compass leads me. (Hubby now spends a lot of time on the so called intellectual broadsheet blog sites, "speaking" into the absurdity and crass cut n paste mentality that exists out there. But he reports that some days he is just wearied by the seer volume of numpties out there who don’t seam to have the ability to reason through, to the final and brutal conclusion, the reality of the outworking of their comments…they just don’t think they are cut n pasting from other sites because they think it makes them look clever).
I think that the media is as controlled and manipulated by the weight of the need to be the same as everyone else as any individual or institution. All of the different aspects of media tend to cut n paste off each other for creativity and steer on what is new and approved. As a result it is all getting dummed down to the lowest common aspect. Less intellect and reasoned independent thought. More violence and grunge.

Enough ranting for now.

[billy]

the media is definitely manipulated and to some extent controlled lets face it time warner owns big chunks and aren't scared to promote their own agendas, fox news is certainly manipulated. murdochs empire has been shown to manipulate not only the press but politicians. while i enjoy the news now, i used to hate it. i found it and any fly on the wall stuff crap. as i got older my thoughts changed and i wanted to see what was going on in the world. while i like some other forms of media i really do dislike light entertainment shows. the reality shows specially. i was brought up with the bbc, which probably had an agenda but it wasn't there per say to be a cash cow. now most media has one point, to generate cash. in the process to boost ratings. while i'm not averse to copy and pasting in general i have a decent memory and remember silly things many people ignore. i'm interested in the world about me. though i have no education as such, i know i'm fairly intelligent. i have in many cases fixed views but those fixed views do change. i seldom believe the media i see, read, and hear. i try and disseminate. sadly, it gets harder because now there are a glut of outpourings. when the latest shooting incident comes on i switch channels. i know all there is know and need not watch further. however i'm following the gun fallout and trying to guess an outcome.

one thing that i do like about all this media that surrounds us, is the fact that it enables people, gay rights, womens rights freedoms around the world, it does this hand in hand with social media sites. people are more connected now than they ever were. for instance here i am post to people halfway round the world. when i was in my teens it wasn't the norm. but these sites and shows are not there for our benefit even if we do benefit from them. it's all about cash. somehow though these media sites and some think we owe them our souls. instagram is now using your images in adverts. they take and make from you yet pretend they're giving.

[cidermaid]

Good point about the benifits of some of the modern advantages of media and being able to connect to people Billy. I also agree about the enabling aspect of different rights groups...but I still object to having a view forced down my throat and the suggestion that i also have to endorse and embrase all things.

[billy]

yeah, that can be infuriating. media does try hard to control us

[Leanne]

Stupid people are the most easily controlled. The best defense against media and political manipulation: don't be so fucking stupid. Before you believe a word that comes from a media or political (because they're pretty much the same thing) source, stop and ask yourself what their agenda might be. Examine the story for bias. Poke holes in it. Look at it from the possible "other side". Try to work out who has been silenced, and then try to work out what their silence might be covering up. Who has been privileged by the report? Who's been made to look good, and who's been marginalised? The same filters we use for advertising (or should use for advertising, but clearly don't, considering the number of people who blindly follow fashion trends) should apply for every single thing we read, hear or see.

[rowens]

Around here, hanging out or spending time together means watching tv together. And people will talk to you on the phone or on the computer, but in person they don't have anything to say but boring gossip. If you have a girl you like, you can hold her and more if she lets you, but there's not much else to do, because they don't do anything else. It gets depressing. And when you're on the phone or online, they are obviously copying and pasting things so that they can trick you into thinking they're interesting and smart (even if you already find them interesting). It's depressing how many people do that. So in person, they can't talk about the same things. I used to like to listen to music with people, but then I realized they weren't experiencing the music the same way I was, so we couldn't connect that way either. Music or tv or movies. And you can't talk about anything but gossip. You can get high or drunk together, and maybe go to bed together, that's as good as it gets. Get a job, and come home and talk shit about people they work with. Then go online and talk more shit about people. And when you go to work, the people talk the same gossip, and if you don't join in, they start gossiping about you.

That's why I get sick of computers, tvs, phones, and video games. It's hard enough to talk to somebody while they're not running all those things at once. I like tv shows and movies too, but there isn't anything worth watching on most of the time. The people I know watch the same reruns over and over everyday. My sisters watch tv like they're in a trance, and they are in a trance.

[billy]

it's different strokes for folks. hanging out for us was time in the pub or club, and all things connected. during the day was the things you speak of. i think we need some of that kind of low level interaction. but we're all different, i can't imagine how others feels. i met my partner on line and it's still going strong after 10 years. (addy will confirm ) back in the day, woe betide anyone that changes channel when a sop was on. i too hated that crap but some people use it as a release i guess. what happens in the media can be a something to talk about point. you only have to see the pro and anti gun arguments that are spilling out of the media. same with fashion. though i find most of that crappy.

[arbil_poieo]

TVs, internet and video games use to be for entertainment but now more of a commitment or addiction. Which isn't necessarily bad because it does allow interaction and being connected to the rest of the world, but it does cripple us when it comes to human interaction and actually getting out into the world instead of logging on. As far as the media it tends to glamorize every situation like teenage pregnancy (teen mom reality show) I don't believe that, that was their intention but it is what it is. News media makes a spectacle out of every tragedy or story instead of just informing, news has become a drama. Instead of reporting they go into this trying to be the first to get the scoop then get the wrong information then replay it over and over, while not reporting anything else that's happening in the world. I think everything in life has it's upside and a downside. I believe the biggest downside of the media is what people will get from it like it's okay to get pregnant at 15 because you can be a reality star. While some things have a little left to the imagination other things are not politically correct. Such as the man who murder all those kids in Connecticut isn't a monster, he suffers from mental illness...according to the media everyone who has done something terribly wrong has a mental illness, so it makes it okay. Overall, I think the media downplay certain things and turns other things into a free-for-all.

[rowens]

TVs, internet and video games use to be for entertainment but now more of a commitment or addiction. Which isn't necessarily bad because it does allow interaction and being connected to the rest of the world, but it does cripple us when it comes to human interaction and actually getting out into the world instead of logging on. As far as the media it tends to glamorize every situation like teenage pregnancy (teen mom reality show) I don't believe that, that was their intention but it is what it is. News media makes a spectacle out of every tragedy or story instead of just informing, news has become a drama. Instead of reporting they go into this trying to be the first to get the scoop then get the wrong information then replay it over and over, while not reporting anything else that's happening in the world. I think everything in life has it's upside and a downside. I believe the biggest downside of the media is what people will get from it like it's okay to get pregnant at 15 because you can be a reality star. While some things have a little left to the imagination other things are not politically correct. Such as the man who murder all those kids in Connecticut isn't a monster, he suffers from mental illness...according to the media everyone who has done something terribly wrong has a mental illness, so it makes it okay. Overall, I think the media downplay certain things and turns other things into a free-for-all.

When I was a teenager I was affected by the media a lot. Music and movies and comedy and wrestling. I was a collector of merchandise, and I left home to try to do all those things. But the people that work in those areas of entertainment have to do exactly what they're told, and I can't do that without feeling embarrassed. And I lost respect for many of the things I used to admire.

But that's not the only problem I had. "the man who murder all those kids in Connecticut isn't a monster, he suffers from mental illness...according to the media everyone who has done something terribly wrong has a mental illness, so it makes it okay." It's hard to understand 'mental illness'. In most cases people that are considered mentally ill don't kill people for that reason alone. There are people considered 'criminally insane' that aren't insane at all, they simply have no use for the morality and compassion most take for granted.

The reporters and the people they interview speak what's on their mind when they're thrown into these live situations, and use words like "monster", and then they have doctors and mental health researchers come in and try to clarify things, but they stumble over many issues. I think that with certain mental states, people are cast to the margins and feel excluded to the point that they start to shed their moral understandings and start to find that their compassion results only in disparagement from others. So people like that are in danger of becoming like the "criminally insane" 'psychopaths', and then kill themselves after they go through with horrible actions. A psychopath is a psychopath like a shark is a shark; it's just a crude fact. And the psychopath is usually someone that appears normal, compared with the socially awkward people with mental problems.

My sense of space dimensions is distorted. It got worse in my twenties. I have to use my imagination to experience things around me as others do. So obviously I come off sort of strange to people that see me. And I realize how others use their imaginations too, and equate strange with dangerous. I can't drive so I have to walk everywhere, people find that strange in itself, and since my sense of space is off I walk kind of funny. That in itself has people uncomfortable about having me in their neighborhood.

It's a hard issue, and I've been in behind-the-scenes situations with radio broadcast reporters, and they laugh and talk shit about the people they report about when they're off the air. They dig for all this personal information on killers and victims, and when the microphone's off they laugh and make jokes about all the lurid details they can't talk about on air. And the hosts are the same. Most people are when given the chance to make light of others.

[arbil_poieo]

While mental illness is a serious issue it's become abused. People who suffer from mental illness do struggle in a lot of areas that a lot of people take for granted, but because of the overuse phrase in the media people will be more afraid of someone who has a mental illness, afraid that they'll shoot up the place. The media digs for mental illness of some kind and once they do it's brought up and talked about for awhile. Mental illness is so loosely linked to mass murders; do I think you have to be insane to shoot innocent kids? Yes I do but do I think he's clinically textbook insane? No I don't. He was one person who had mental issues, but it's not an excuse to go on a killing spree at an elementary school. Many people suffer from a mental illness, but they're not a threat. Instead of the media educating us on a mass murderer's mental illness, talk about him as an individual who did something indescribable because he chose to. I don't think it's fair to use that as the only possible explanation. It isn't the mental illness or the gun that killed all those people it was the person, I wish for once the media would make that distinction, call it for what it is without the excuses. It isn't fair and it isn't right for the victims or for the people who do have a mental illness. Instead of wrapping it up in one nice neat little box of mental illness the media needs to tell their audience that some people are capable of doing anything.