You may try to deny it; many of us do. We are our own people, with our own thoughts,
feelings, and opinions. We are individuals, and nothing influences us without our knowledge and
permission. Certainly not the media; we create the media, after all, and direct it with our own
tastes and preferences. It is merely a part of our lives, a not-too pervasive part. We say this with
absolute certainty and still know that we lie. For the media is not a part of our lives, it is our lives.
It directs us, moves us towards what its creators, directors and sponsors want us to see.
Everything we do is not media influenced, it is media-dictated.
In some ways, our modern information systems are helpful. They are, after all, informative.
From these systems we learn, we process the information they bring on current events, popular
culture, and every other subject known to man. But the information is tainted. It is filtered through
the corporate sponsors and the agendas of those who bring it to us. Therefore we bow to the
opinions of those who give us our knowledge on every subject they expose us to, from the clothes
we buy, to the music we listen to, the films we see, books we read, politicians we vote for, religions
we believe in. Our thoughts are not our own. What does this mean to the world in which we live?
How does this effect our leaders, our schools and our families? And in a society so permeated with
For many of us who attend college now, the media has been around us since birth. The
television was a effective babysitter, and we grew up accustomed to the quick, joke-a-minute style
of cartoons and situation comedies. With the advent of MTV in 1981, we learned to absorb
information through the two and three minute stories offered on that channel, as well as VH1 and
BET. These channels opened to us a world that most of our parents simply didn't see as children.
One hour of MTV&apo...