We do not have a democratic media, one that involves large-scale public participation that reflects public interests and real values. The United States may be a skewed electoral democracy of sorts, but it does not allow equality of communication and publication. In 2012, Business Insider ran an online article explaining how 6 corporations control 90% of the Media in America.
The US media does not want its population to become decision-makers and participants : they want a passive, obedient population of consumers and political spectators - a community of people who are so atomized and isolated who can't put together their limited resources and become an independent, powerful force that will chip away at concentrated power.
Commercially run TV is going to have certain purposes - namely, the ones determined by people who own and control it. This is why for example, the PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) is sometimes called "the Petroleum Broadcasting Service," which is reflective of the interests and power of the highly conscious business system that owns it. Ownership always determines the media content. If the content ever goes beyond the bounds owners will tolerate, they'll move in to censor it. People on air will do what the owners and investors want. There's a whole, long filtering process that makes sure that people only rise through a system to become managers, directors, editors and actors, if they have internalized the values of the owners. At that point, they can describe themselves as free press or free media. So you'll occasionally find some flaming independent-liberal type like Tom Wicker of NY Times who says that no one tells him what to write, he can write whatever he wants and that he is a part of a absolutely free system. That may be true for him after he has demonstrated to the satisfaction of his bosses that he'd internalized their values.
The US media does not want its population to become decision-makers and participants : they want a passive, obedient population of consumers and political spectators - a community of people who are so atomized and isolated who can't put together their limited resources and become an independent, powerful force that will chip away at concentrated power.
Commercially run TV is going to have certain purposes - namely, the ones determined by people who own and control it. This is why for example, the PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) is sometimes called "the Petroleum Broadcasting Service," which is reflective of the interests and power of the highly conscious business system that owns it. Ownership always determines the media content. If the content ever goes beyond the bounds owners will tolerate, they'll move in to censor it. People on air will do what the owners and investors want. There's a whole, long filtering process that makes sure that people only rise through a system to become managers, directors, editors and actors, if they have internalized the values of the owners. At that point, they can describe themselves as free press or free media. So you'll occasionally find some flaming independent-liberal type like Tom Wicker of NY Times who says that no one tells him what to write, he can write whatever he wants and that he is a part of a absolutely free system. That may be true for him after he has demonstrated to the satisfaction of his bosses that he'd internalized their values.
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