During the reading of Chapter ten in The Whole World is Watching, there was a quote that particularly stuck with me: "The primary product of any news is the audiences attention, and the primary market is the advertisers themselves. As a result the media speaks from the angle of consumers not workers" (Gitlin).
As I read that quote I thought, wow that makes sense. Personally I hate almost all commercials. I can't even watch a sporting event without these anti climactic commercials that ruin the flow of the game. But that's just the beginning. The reference to the article is simply the media itself. Any form of media is overwhelmingly run by advertising, and it's unavoidable for any human in this world.
This is how big the media can be. The media is a gateway to capitalism and all kinds of businesses, and obviously the large ones thrive. This is the downside of capitalism. When businesses with obscene amounts of money use their greed to destroy any other kind of competition and manipulate the audiences in the media to just keep giving them more money.
Therefore it's arguable that most major media sources are linked with higher businesses and that's where we are now. The media arguably can run this country, and that's the problem of advertising right now, and this is why I feel that a vast majority of people that I talk to are anti-capitalism.
That's definently true. I feel that a pretty huge majority of people I talk to, at least around here, hate the idea of capitalism. Those opinions are fine, and I agree to an extent where I can't even watch a football game without watching the same bud light commercial seventeen times while my favorite team is in the red zone. It's not just sports though, it's everywhere. And that's a source of all this negativity.
It's also one of the many reasons for this Occupy Wall Street movement. To advocate change in many different levels, and make this country a better place for anyone. I truley believe that the Occupy Wall Street movement is good, and inspiring. However I do not truley understand what the plan is, how this movement can actually change things, or what the results of Occupy Wall Street will be. But I definently know it's good.
I also happen to think that some elements of capitalism are good. I am not anti-capitalism, but I am anti greed. Unfortunately too often are these things correlated in this country and like Dr. West said a few weeks ago, you have to prepare to die. I think that means that too often in life people simply do whatever they can to make money. Preparing to die means that someday when you're on your deathbed you can look back and say you were a good person. Heck that day can be tomorrow, so why not be the best person you can be to others around you rather than yourself? The irony is being good to others makes you feel good about yourself.
So I'm not anti-capitalism, and I'm certainly not one of those mega-conservative ignorant people that think everything will be fine with this country. Times are tough, and I happen to be blessed. But that does not mean I should be ok with things. I hope that after this class I can have some sort of general idea as to what people can do to start fixing this country that we live in. Because right now, I'm clueless. Seriously I have absolutely no idea. I'm pro freedom but sometimes I feel that with freedom the conflict of whether or not these businesses, or the 1%, should have all this power is where the problem lays. People should be able to do whatever they want in this country, but sometimes people just suck! Where can we possibly begin to fix this country that we live in?
So there you have it. Hardcore advertising sucks, greed sucks, and times for lots of hardworking Americans right now really suck. But I refuse to think that this is permanent, and I refuse to just complain about everything that's wrong in this country without any kind of positive suggestion. For some crazy reason, I think people are generally good. And this country that has become so messed up can be fixed. And I think that optimism may in fact be the most important thing at the end of the day. Because if we want to fix things, we have to believe we can do it.
I just have no idea where to begin.
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