Media bias is one of the most dangerous and prolific tools in the arsenal of the world powers in today's information-saturated environment; They can sway people in an array of directions, and for all kind's of purposes, from choosing a certain brand of soap to inciting a war. They can vilify ideals, make reasonable, well-documented injustices seem ignorant, or simply focus on minor events, creating culturally cretinous viewers. And with the development of 24-hour news networks over the past few dozen years, this has only become more prominent in the American culture and mindset, as television's quest for eyeballs and the highest bidding advertiser leads most of these channels to abandon the positive and proactive for the stories that will glue their viewers to the tube; Those that inspire fear, uncertainty, and eventually, a need for as much viewing time as possible in the hopes that the news will one day bring them visions of a world saved. But in doing so they have managed to create viewers who are obedient to their view-point of the world, because as they become saturated with one media venue, they begin to take on even the nuancial elements of the broadcaster's perspective. Through an array of invisible methodology like repetition, using specific language, focusing on certain stories, speculation about impacts, coverage association, use of images (color and frame choice), choice of guests and quotes, polling their own audience, and the multitudes of host/audience social/economic local/international and rational/emotional dynamics, media outlets always have the opportunity to create the story that fits their established framework.
This blog is dedicated to reading between the lines to show you why and how the media has managed to gain dominant economic, political, and emotional control of the millions of media consumers in the US, and what the dangers are, as citizens, to falling victim to these protagonists that have inspired atrocities since W.R. Hearst reported the explosion on board the USS Maine as being the work of the Spanish Navy and inspired the Spanish-American War over Cuba. If you can see the bias and understand the value in looking at the same story from assorted angles, you will find that you have a better grasp of the wants and beliefs of the people world-wide, and can look at at any media source and take more real, applicable information away, even through the bias of the source. When you know the lens is there, you can truly begin to see the fingerprints of those that placed it and picked the angle. And in a world soaked to the bone with media, identifying and accounting for this bias is the only way to protect yourself from it's manipulating effect and the eventual inability to question our modern world for yourself.
