Is anything that we want, ever something that we need? Sometimes yes, but I think most of the time no. Same can be said for the media. In terms of social, political, cultural or economic matters, unless you are involved with it personally, most of the time the way you are going to find out information about those matters is through the media. Because we use the media as our source for these matters, varies on whether it’s better for it to inform you or to find out something from somebody specifically who knows it from their own first hand experience, which is of course rare to come by, and normally those people in turn go to a media source who relay the message to the masses. One blogger believes it depends on the person if it’s beneficial for them to use the media as a source for various matters, because each matter is of a different level of priority or importance to each person. Some people only care to hear a little bit about sometimes, while some people care to hear a lot about other things.
I personally think most of the time the media that we want is not the media that we need. I believe we need unbiased facts in terms of political news through the media, and that is extremely hard to come by. A political article from the Toronto Star, is going to have a different tone and opinion than an article from the National Post. Some folks are aware of what newspaper companies are right wing or left wing, but if you’re unaware and don’t yet have an opinion on political issues, just randomly grabbing whatever newspaper can shape the way you view society. Same with commercials, if you are not media literate and the commercial is saying “you need this” then you might actually go out and spend the money you don’t have on said item. One blogger thinks the media is a 100% same representation of society, that it is essentially holding up a mirror to the world, where as another blogger thinks it depends on whoever is on the other side of the TV or media outlet. Sometimes it is mirror’d, and sometimes it is not. You could argue that most of the media has a “capitalist” ideology, writing any article about anything, trying to sell anything, without any moral thought, just to make an extra buck. And you could argue on a personal level that yes, that is a perfect representation of yourself, or no, that is not a representation of yourself at all. Regardless if it is something that is an accurate representation of yourself or not, since it is contextual media in general that you find beneficial to yourself personally i think isn’t that hard to find, you just have to do some research at first, but thanks to the internet, it really is not that hard. I think why maybe some people wouldn’t choose to search to find a source of media that they can relate to and agree with, and need essentially, is at times it can be a bit aggravating and tricky to find, and how do you know for sure the source is reliable? And also if you are really opinionated, naturally it is hard to find somebody with similar ideas and thoughts as yourself, especially if they are abstract.
I think once this capitalist ideology is gone from our society (could be sometime) that is more likely when the media we want will be exactly and just what we need.
sources:
http://patricksimmonsblog.wordpress.com/2013/10/24/1f25-post-2the-media-we-want/
turkelsimon 