Media is the main way in which we get our information about current events and the world around us. Media takes many forms as it can be radio, television, newspapers, magazines or the internet. In “Little Brother” the way in which the Department of Homeland Security and police manipulate the media helps to influence the people of San Francisco into what to think about their neighbours.
The media in the United States is completely privately owned unlike in Canada where there is a mix of crown owned media and privately owned media and countries like China or Libya where the media is completely owned and controlled by the government. In the US and Canada the government is not supposed to have very much control over the operations of the media. But in the book the DHS was manipulating what the media was broadcasting and was trying to control public opinions by misrepresenting the events that were happening. Such as the concert, the DHS chose not to tell the public about how it was a peaceful gathering until the police told them to dispersed and started fighting with them and gas them. The DHS made it sound like it was a terrorist training camp and that the concert goers were trying to hurt people. The media chose to only show the DHS’s story and not the stories of the Xneters. In China the government uses state owned media to completely control the information its citizen’s receive and in the book the DHS seems to also be controlling what information the citizens get to ensure that the majority of people don’t believe that the DHS is wrong.
All media has bias. Even if it is intended or not, the personal beliefs of the writer will create a bias. In the book all of the media coverage has bias against the Xnet and against the youth who are involved. The people in the media in the book tend to be more willing to accept anything the DHS says as the truth without questioning it and by doing that they are only telling one side of the story.
The source of information is important to the integrity of media. If a media outlet does not properly source everything they say then things they produce may not be taken seriously. But in the book it seems news stories are not being researched the way they should be to ensure its integrity and validity. News outlets seem to just take whatever the DHS says at face value and they do not seem to be questioning what they are saying.
There is always a chance that what media is saying is bias or being manipulated to someone’s advantage, but as people we need to question what we see and demand the most factual information out of our media.
http://books.google.ca/books?id=hHkza3TX-LIC&lpg=PR9&ots=fLVwk8w_he&dq=media%20in%20china&lr&pg=PA2#v=onepage&q&f=false
Canada Act 1982, (U.K.) 1982, c. 11 http://lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/Charter/FullText.html
http://laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/B-9.01/page-17.html#h-14, http://laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/B-9.01/
http://www.ccnr.ca/english/index.php
i really like how you went went back and forth comparing real life situations to the situations in little brother. and i like the contrasting about biases. I think breaking it down into paragraphs would have made it a bit of a nicer read. all in all, good job nevills!
ReplyDeleteI think its really interesting how there are so many rules to media, but there are still ways to stretch something so far and still remain in the bounds of the rules. Media is a huge part of our lives and its sad how much of our lives are based around media that may be slightly different from the truth. I agree with Rob the way you were able to explain what was happening in the book by first talking about our lives today was really interesting.
ReplyDeleteSuper rad post Justin, I'm so proud. I actually didn't know that all news media in the US is privately owned. I guess that's one of the major differences between us as nations. I think Canada is in the green with the decision keep it only partially owned. Full government control clearly doesn't seem to work that well, except for in Libya, where they totally look like they have everything under complete control. Very nice blog post!
ReplyDeleteTo long, did not read. No I am lying, I read it and was very surprised by some of it. For example I found it shocking that the media in the United States is entirely privately owned however I am glad Canada is different. I also liked how you related it to the book, flicking between the book and real life situations. Very well done. :D
ReplyDelete