Introduction

Apparently we live in an age of action-packed technologies, swift scientific breakthroughs, burgeoning Third-World development and most importantly multifaceted media1 communications. In common jargon, it is termed the Information Age, the Exciting New Era, the Globalized World, the Digitalized Planet and so on. But sadly the other side of this kaleidoscope is totally monochrome; it’s a world full of poverty, oppression and injustice. It is a world dominated by larger-than-life mega-corporations that have taken control of not only our minds but also our common choices concerning trivial matters of life.

Gumisai Mutume notes, “the world faces the spectrum of a global commercial media sector swamping the traditional national press and promoting the commercial values of international capital, according to media analysts. They warn that the development of such a juggernaut hardly augurs well for any diversity of opinion and freedom of expression, and threatens to muffle the voices of the world's poor majority in a continually globalizing world. Some nine super-corporations already virtually control the industry and, together with 40 or so smaller players, produce the bulk of the world's newspapers, magazines, books, films, and television and radio programs”. Robert McChesney, one of the best analyst of mainstream contemporary media, explains the emergence of global media: “Before the media explosion of the late 1980s, national media generally were characterized by locally or state-owned radio, television, and newspapers, especially in developing countries. When a flurry of mergers, takeovers, and cross-ownerships began, some sections believed that the advent of the Internet would eliminate the monopoly of these media giants as a new democratic medium was being established. Subsequent developments, however, have seen the same corporations also colonizing the Internet”.

The Global Media Onslaught
“One of the intentions of corporate–controlled media is to instill in people a sense of disempowerment, of immobilization and paralysis. Its outcome is to turn you into good consumers. It is to keep people isolated, to feel that there is no possibility for social change.”

David Barsamian

Today a corporate regime dominates the world. These corporations exercise major influence over our day-to-day lives; they shape our attitudes, desires, priorities, relationships, values, sense of identity, modes of reflection, the ways in which we build community, and our perceptions of time and change. And one of their most powerful vehicle of intervention is media. David Edwards in his book, Burning All Illusions, notes, the battle for freedom from the control of earlier church-based and autocratic regimes has been, at best, only partially successful; that many of the devices used to maintain our conformity and passivity in the past have not been overcome at all but remain (often unconsciously) as servants of the powerful in new guises. Today, the same Emperor can be seen striding unashamedly across our TV screens, resplendent in the various guises of 'democracy', 'the free world', 'the free press', 'Third World aid', 'human rights concerns', 'normality',' just the way world is', appearing to be noble and moral as a matter of 'self-evident” common sense'. We have merely come full circle to a new version of the old illusions that clothe the same naked ambition and greed.

More than escalating consumerization, cultural homogenization/degradation, violence, etc, media is used to manipulate the real interests of local people.

Noam Chomsky discusses this implication:
“A properly functioning system of indoctrination has a variety of tasks, some rather delicate. One of its targets is the ‘stupid’ and ‘ignorant’ masses. They must be kept that way, diverted with emotionally potent simplications, marginalized and isolated. Ideally, each person should be alone in front of the TV screen watching sports, soap operas, or comedies, deprived of organizational structures that permit individuals lacking resources to discover what they think and believe in interaction with others, to formulate their own concerns and programs, and to act to realize them. They can be permitted, even encouraged, to ratify the decisions of their betters in periodic elections. The ‘rascal multitude’ are the proper targets of the mass media and a public education system geared to obedience and training in needed skills, including the skill of repeating patriotic slogans on timely occasions.”

The global media system, in short, is oppressive, against the true essence of democracy (freedom of expression) and is vehemently biased. Due to the existence of such media frameworks, where consumerism and commercial interest reign supreme, the opportunities and spaces for critical thought and action are being pushed somewhere in the backdrop of general indifference, lack of support mechanisms and little hope for a sustained social change.

Control Mechanisms & Media Manipulation
In their book, The Global Media: The New Missionaries of Corporate Capitalism, Edward Herman and Robert McChesney note that the 1990s has witnessed a dramatic restructuring of national media industries and corporate mergers. The result of which is the emergence of the global commercial media network, which is dominated by ten mostly U.S.-based transnational media conglomerates (TMCs) such as Time Warner, Disney, Bertelsmann, Viacom, Sony, Dutch Philips, and News Corporation (owner of Star). This global media system is an indispensable agent of the globalizing, exploitative market economy as a whole. They further elaborate that the centralization of power is leading to the disappearance of a central requirement of democratic societies – diversity of ownership and ideas in the public sphere. The global media system runs on advertising revenue (from other large companies) and is responsible primarily to their shareholders. There is no accountability to the general public.

The built-in biases of the corporate mainstream media faithfully reflect the dominant ideology, seldom straying into territory that might cause discomfort to those who hold political and economic power, including those who own the media or advertise in it. What follows is an incomplete sketch of the methods by which those biases are packaged and presented.

Manipulation often lurks in the things left unmentioned. The most common form of media misrepresentation is omission. Sometimes the omission includes not just vital details of a story but the entire story itself, even ones of major import. Stories that might reflect poorly upon the powers that be are the least likely to see the light of day. Thus the Tylenol poisoning of several people by a deranged individual was treated as big news but many other stories has remained suppressed for decades, despite the best efforts of worker safety groups to bring the issue before the public. (Methods of Media Manipulation, Michael Parenti)

Media & Societal Issues
One of the ‘wonders’ of the present age is the information overload people are bombarded with throughout the day. Television viewing has become more of a necessity than a one-time leisure activity and as a result TV has become the most powerful transmitter of all sorts of media messages, apt or inapt, for all those willing to view. Today, electronic media (television) has become synonymous with advertising glut, exaggerated violence, all driving audience towards consumerism, self-absorption, disregard for local culture and rising materialism. Richard J. Barnet and John Cavanagh argue that the MTV entertainment network, which specializes in pop videos and serves as continuous commercial for a wide array of commercial products “may be the most influential educator of young people in five continents today”.

Inapt media messages (those reinforcing negative stereotypes) undoubtedly, render a most damaging influence over children. Research has proven that children are spending more time indoors in front of the TV, and less time interacting with each other outside their immediate environments. Within the household, the spaces for thoughtful discussion and meaning-making within the family are also breaking down.

Second, the kind of decontextualized programs that our children are watching, such as film songs, sports, cartoons, quiz shows, and game shows, serve to entice children into what Langdon Winner has called a state of ‘technological somnambulism’ (sleepwalking). When we try to take this drug away from them, children often react with great hostility.

Lastly, the global media often devalues and undermines informal participatory folk media, which provide alternative perspectives on peoples’ realities. The standard response thus far by government and citizen groups to this crisis is censorship – which itself represents another form of thought control.

What Can We Do?
Individually and collectively, people need to start dynamic systematic processes of critical analysis and reflection about mainstream media affecting themselves, their families, their societies and their environments. This is not going to happen easily nor can somebody suggest a predetermined timeline to achieve this level of critical consciousness whereby people begin to realize what they are faced with (the onslaught of global media) and what can they do about it. But yet, collective efforts and actions are needed to disentangle our minds from the contemporary media mechanisms of thought control and manipulation.

People-Centered Applications: One pathway is developing alternative media. Media can also be a very powerful tool for supporting dynamic and diverse forms of learning – every media experience can become an opportunity to learn or to enhance one’s learning abilities and processes. Yet, very few opportunities for creating a truly ‘liberating media’ exist. There is an urgent need to develop concrete community-based efforts to understand and address the challenges that are emerging from a media-rich society. At the same time, there is also an urgent need to develop innovative uses of the media to facilitate the learning and empowerment of people.

Moreover, teachers, parents and educators need to get involved with the process of creating critical media awareness (the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and produce communications in a variety of forms) amongst children via creative alternatives of learning and reflection.

Generating A Media Discourse
“Think for yourselves, do not uncritically accept what you are told, and do what you can to make the world a better place, particularly for those who suffer and are oppressed.”

Noam Chomsky

In this issue of EDucate! we have initiated a debate on perhaps the most pressing issue of the present age: the global media and how they shape up our attitudes and lives. From media’s role in a democratic society to the possible usage of Internet as a vehicle for social change, we have tried to cover issues that seek critical examination and understanding on part of those at the receiving end. We have also explored how education, positively intertwined with media, can and cannot facilitate social change. It should be stressed that those concerned with education break out of the box of factory-schooling and join teachers, cultural activists, and concerned parents around the world in trying to engage the global media and to construct a lifelong learning system for the 21st century that supports the development of the full human potential.

Hopefully this debate will provide a platform for an ongoing discourse that will allow people to explore and understand the issue of global media more profoundly and inspire them to take initiatives in their own capacities towards integrating media positively in the frameworks of education and learning, cultural awareness and community building.

Media Literacy Starts at Home
There are a lot of simple things that you can do in your own home to promote media literacy with your children (adapted from the Just Think Foundation):

• Turn off the television during dinner: This will create an opportunity for family discussion during which you can take time to talk with your children about what's important to you and why you value certain ideals.
  

• Keep a viewing diary: Evaluate your family's television viewing time and see where you can balance and/or cut back on viewing. Aim to keep a balanced diet. What is the ratio of entertainment programs to educational programs?
  

• Don't channel surf: This leads to unnecessary viewing. If you are having trouble finding something to watch, instead of watching, engage in alternative activities with your children.
  

• Avoid putting a television and computer in your child's room: A child with his or her own television gets the message that it's okay to view excessively and indiscriminately.
  

• Encourage your children to think about their favorite shows: Why do they like them? Do they relate to the characters? Does the program represent real-life situations? Ask them to come up with alternate solutions to the conflicts presented in the program.
  

• Point out how media are constructed: Do your children pay attention to commercials? Do they often remember them more than the programs? What children usually do not realize is that media exist to attract audiences for advertisers and programming is designed to attract specific markets. The easiest way for children to begin understanding this is to have them pay attention to the types of commercials played during different programs. Why aren't there toy commercials during the evening news? Why are there so many ads for alcohol during sporting events?
  

• Recognize media stereotypes: Are they true? Are they false? Why? Have your children compare the people you see in the media with real-life people. Can they think of exceptions to the characterizations or portrayals they see?
  

• Remember that you, not the television, are the master: The standard retort broadcasters use for programming with questionable content is that “If you don't like what's on, then just don't watch it.”

You can begin these exercises as soon as your child becomes a media consumer (as early as age 2). The strategies suggested are great for guidance, but it's important to recognize your children's independence in making media decisions, as they grow older. Remember, it's not about your controlling their choices, it's about teaching them to make more informed choices.