Hundreds of years ago the media only consisted of a few newspapers. Its main purpose was to get information out there, to tell stories from all around the world to get people informed. However, today we use the media— newspapers, television shows, radio, Twitter, News channels, etc.-- every minute of the day to socialize, to be informed and for entertainment purposes. We go through our day hunched over these weird little machines that connect us to the world while ignoring the huge problems within the media.
Gender and Ethnic Exclusion
When you turn on the T.V. to kill time between your classes, do you see yourself on the screen? A huge issue with mainstream media is the lack of representation of different ethnicities, genders, and sexualities, heck, everywhere. The truth is, white males dominate the airwaves, leaving little room for women and people of color. Yes, society has made some improvements to the glaring exclusion but we still have a long way to go.
The Big Six
The Big Six refers to the six media conglomerates that dominate the industry. What this means is that GE, Newscorp, Disney, Viacom, Time Warner, CBS own and control 90% of what society consumes: what we read, watch or listen to. The problem with this is that a few people in power have a say in what the world sees.
Bias
Bias in the media is a huge topic that has mountains of research and previous articles written about it. Breaking it down, bias is presenting only one side of a story. The huge problem with this is society relies on these news corporations to tell the truth of a story. The majority of the population is not going to question the information news channels are presenting us, we go with it thinking it’s the truth.
Privacy
Recently, Snapchat has changed their privacy policy with their new update. Rumors were circulating that the company could save all your snaps, stockpiling them for later. Furthermore, multiple of other social media sites have been under fire for their radical privacy policy. For example, a while back Facebook was found to be using their users’ pictures in ads, without permission. Social media sites bury their privacy policy in their huge files of their Terms and Conditions using a language that not a lot of users would understand.
It sounds like a catch 22 but the problem with mainstream media is that we don’t realize there’s a problem with it. We go about our online life posting our funny cat videos and watching our favorite news channel and we fall for the trap that corporations set for us.
