Media Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Media - Essay Example This paper is about the menace posed by the inter-linkage of politics and media and the power of wealth in dictating the national agenda. As Al Gore succinctly puts it, â€Å"As long as individual citizens are not able to use logic and reason as the instruments with which they can dissect and meticulously examine ideas, opinions, policies and laws, corrupt forces will shape those policies and laws instead. It is the public’s lack of participation that empowers its abusers† (Gore 77). As Gore puts it, it is the thirty second commercial that goes a long way in shaping the attitudes of the electorate towards the presidential candidates. And these commercials are paid for by the elite that have a vested interest in propagating their point of view. As John Mcquaid puts it, â€Å"The media are constantly on the lookout for the odd moment that might capture some revealing truth about a candidate--and, ideally, create a feeding frenzy that consumes the campaign. In 2000, Al Go res exaggerated sighing during a debate, his TV makeup, and even the colour of his clothing became media obsessions. In 2004, it was John Kerrys supposed cultural elitism: the windsurfing, the request for Swiss on his Philly cheese steak. The problem is, such issues are almost always essentially trivial, having little to do with substantive issues or how a candidate might actually behave once in office†. Thus, what we have is a trivialization of public discourse by a media that is increasingly caught in â€Å"feeding frenzies† that have little to do with the larger issues that face the nation. I start off by describing the structure of media ownership and its relation to control in a globalised world. The iron grip of the global corporations over the media outlets operating as transnational entities has given rise to oligarchic tendencies and blatant misuse of the media apparatus. The subsequent sections detail the