This class has taken the opportunity to investigate media ethics and has
transformed this initial agenda into a crusade. Every topic discussed ultimately leads
to a search with the intent to find saints in this technology based, power corrupted modern society. An essentially loveless world, today’s society does not exactly
practice the "do unto others…" social method of the Christian faith (and cannot be
expected to). Modern cultures have confused money with power and influence which
has largely contributed to the growing anti-social behavior of the person who believes
in "every man [or woman] for himself." These money grubbers coincidentally reside in the business world where they must sell, sell, and sell some more to upkeep their
lifestyle. Morals and ethics are seemingly absent from this state of mind, but are
where they should be - in the form of an unrealistic and unattainable, ideal (for the
present time).
A media free from all evils would be a kind of perfection and would
not be as confusing (or interesting). In its present state, the medium offers an
unregulated source of topics that will be analyzed by each individual (educated or not)
and it will be that individual’s decision of how they wish to apply this information. The
issue of much concern (misleading messages leads to misused applications) has
recently influenced an outcry for intervention. In Patricia J. Williams’s
article "Hate Radio," the First Amendment is attacked for working too well - the
media has too much freedom. This is of course only one sided: a "militant black
woman, cranky feminazi" criticizes the opinions of Rush Limbaugh and Howard
Stern. Her opinion that the white, middle class male should not be targeted as a
minority should be heard as well, because limiting the right to free expression also limits
your own.
The failure of socialism should be recognized when dealing with the
regulation of any rights altered to serve the people. Any form of the media represents
someone’s opinion through how topics and ideas are expressed, chosen, and presented.
The Constitution was intended for the educated and when " ‘[v]oters are furious at the
media’" (Marsha Mercer) they should be furious with themselves for not learning
more about the issues without superimposed opinions - like intended.
The only group worth worrying about is the youth, (even though it has been virtually ignored in this class despite a few concerned mothers) because the members of this group cannot objectively view the media as opinion; only as reality. Children take what is said on television (especially commercials) as true. As explained by Roy F. Fox in Harvesting Minds:
Most …kids [do] not evaluate commercials effectively…[T]hey [are] often
unaware of how their thinking restrict[s] their thinking…(1) denying that commercials
influence thinking or consumer behavior; (2) evaluating only one commercial at a time;
(3) overvaluing the newest commercials (P.67-68).
This awareness of children’s response to advertising should be taken more seriously in
and out of a class situation as a possible solution to our present state of all opinion.
Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 9.