Media Controlling the Mind

Media Controlling Mankind...

"God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables... slaves with white collars. Advertising has its taste in cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, no purpose or place. We have no Great War. No great depression. Our Great War is a spiritual war... Our great depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd be millionaires, movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. We're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, VERY PISSED OFF."

This is a quote from the character of Tyler Durden in the 1999 movie Fight Club.

This quote is an intricate summary of the current generation of twenty/thirty-something-year-olds. It highlights the fact that this generation was "raised on television" and one the film's main themes is how the misuse of media has corrupted the minds of those it influenced beyond repair. And the worst part? It's all true...

The media world today is a strange one. Why are there so few political or current affairs themed programmes on our television screens? Why are the so many American comedies on our screens? Why is it so hard to find a balanced, unbiased news report on the "war" in Iraq?

When John Reith founded the BBC in 1922, as director general, he developed strong ideas about educational and cultural public service responsibilities of a national radio service. He based his ideas on Plato's philosophy that if you allow the human soul to come into contact with the Good, the True and the Beautiful, the soul will respond. His three aims were to inform, to educate and to entertain. What became of his admirable ideology? Why is it that the main use of media now is seemingly entertainment?

Could it be argued that the current misuse of media power is the result of private media ownership? If a businessperson owned a large media empire, would they have any moral concern if their media had a negative effect on society, as long as they were making money? Surely, a government would have a far greater concern for how the generation of tomorrow was affected by the media. If the government were to control the media, couldn't they mould the current youth into fine and upstanding citizens of the future? But what if the media businessperson somehow gained more influence than the government? What if they had so much power, the government was afraid of them because the outcome of the next election could literally be decided by that businessperson? Does this sound familiar? Welcome to 2005. Welcome to our lives...

The likes of Silvio Berlusconi, Rupert Murdoch and Ted Turner immediately spring to mind.

Berlusconi is Prime Minister of Italy but he also owns three Italian television networks and a huge print-media empire. Berlusconi's three national TV networks, Canale 5, Rete 4 and Italia 1, control more than 90 percent of the television advertising revenue in the country and 45 percent of the audience. He also has two daily newspapers and many magazines. Berlusconi is both government and businessperson (with respect to my above description) but he is still a businessperson, which means that money is his goal. It could be argued that his political involvement could eliminate his business competition making him effectively a media dictator. "This is the only country in the world where the political parties must pay their political adversary in order to run an election campaign," says Giuseppe Giulietti, a communications expert and Member of Parliament with the Left Democrats. Berlusconi even bought part of German TV magnate Leo Kirsch's media empire (and vice versa) to allow them to get around national antitrust laws in their own countries while retaining effective control. Berlusconi's estimated worth is over $10 billion.

In 1980, Ted Turner established the Cable News Network (CNN), television's first 24-hour news channel, which was first met with scepticism and is now a broadcasting fixture. In 1988 he established TNT movie channel and in 1992, the Cartoon Network. After his failed attempt to purchase the CBS network, Turner bought the MGM/UA Entertainment Company, gaining a vast library of film classics. Turner also owns the Atlanta Braves baseball team, the Atlanta Hawks basketball team and ice hockey team, the Atlanta Thrashers. In 1996, Turner Broadcasting System merged with Time Warner Inc. (now AOL Time Warner). Turner became vice chairman of Time Warner in charge of the TBS subsidiary, a position he held until he became a vice-chairman of AOL Time Warner. Turner is believed to be worth over $4 billion (that's including $5 billion he reportedly lost on AOL shares).

Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation is more globalised than Berlusconi's and Turner's media empires. In fact, even with Berlusconi's political power, it could be argued that Murdoch has more power because of this globalisation. News Corporation owns a major stake in BSkyB. In England, it has the Times, the Sunday Times, the Sun and the News of the World, as well as owning major magazines and books. In the USA, Murdoch owns the huge Fox Network and 20th Century Fox. He also owns newspapers in Australia and New Zealand. His Star TV, which is based in China (despite his devout anti-Communism), is a huge Asian satellite television network spanning from the Middle East to Japan. People say that Murdoch is a media mogul. His estimated personal worth stands at over Ђ9 billion. Would it be wrong to suggest that he is, in fact, an out-and-and megalomaniac?

The difference between journalism and propaganda is that journalists are supposed to present opposing views, fairly and without bias, and to provide the information which allows an audience to make their own decisions. But with such monopolies existing in terms of media ownership, how could we ever have balanced media coverage? These are the men who control the world. People will argue that George Bush is the most powerful man in the world. But Michael Moore, American writer and film director (and a huge anti-Bush campaigner) claimed both in his book Dude, Where's My Country? and his film Fahrenheit 9/11 that the Fox was the first news network during the 2000 US Presidential Election to call Florida in Bush's favour.

"John Ellis, a first cousin of George W. Bush, ran the network's 'decision desk' during the 2000 election, and Fox was the first to name Bush the winner. Earlier, Ellis had made six phone calls to Cousin Bush during