In searching through my bottomless pit of emails today, I ran across a paper that I wrote in college. It's dated April 21, 2001.
I remember it was from my "Mass Media & Society" class, which was a fantastic experience. I missed the 8-year anniversary by a week, but I still thought I'd post it for the hell of it. It still seems pretty relevant to me.
I can't remember what grade I received on this thing, but we'll pretend it was a B. (It was more than likely a C, but I used to threaten my professor a lot with knives and other stabbing weapons, so that usually merited a few extra points on the side.)
Reading stuff that you wrote 8 years ago is always so weird. I thought it was pretty neat, though, so have at it. Pasted 100% in its original form:
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Ralph's Recliner & David's Alarm Clock
(Matt McClane strikes again)
It’s 5:00 in the afternoon. Meet Ralph Bernard. Ralph, a large man of 40 years, is walking home to his basement level apartment from his minimum-wage-paying job. Ralph owns a television there in his basement level apartment, and he has plans to sit down in his thrift-store bought recliner tonight, turn down the lights, and see what sorts of wonders magically appear on his 19” box of information.
It’s 1:00 in the afternoon, four hours earlier, and across town, Rebecca Lewis, a 17-year-old high school student sits in her public high school chair at her assigned desk in Mr. Noonkesser’s Government class. Mr. Noonkesser decides to challenge the class with a question.
“Why don’t we see any anti-Disney programs on television?”
“Why don’t we see any anti-Disney programs on television?”
The class looks confused, never even hearing of such a thing. Rebecca looks down towards her desk for a thought on the matter.
It is 5:30, and we are in Ralph Bernard’s basement level apartment, and he finally makes it to his television. It seems to Ralph that switching the power button to the “on” position and hearing that little surge of power accompanied by the “click” sound is not unlike making it to his own personal heaven. He leans back in his comfortable recliner just as planned, and takes aim with his remote control.
“Because Disney wouldn’t want that at all,” exclaims Rebecca from her desk. The other kids in class all turn around to look at her.
“Exactly,” Mr. Noonkesser agrees with a smile. “So why don’t we ever see any diversity on television at all? Do you think this is what our founding fathers would have wanted when they began our nation? A great new free world where everybody can be heard and the stage is set for a free and open marketplace for ideas?”
“Not at all,” says Rebecca with a frown.
Mr. Noonkesser smiles again. “I agree with you, Rebecca. I think that today’s world is just about as far away from what they had wanted as we could get. Instead of great diversity of ideas, we have about ten million movie channels to choose from. We have about ten million sports channels to choose from. Is that diversity?”
“I think it’s brainwashing,” Rebecca mutters.
The clock on Ralph Bernard’s wall says 5:40 as he leans in to see the newest episode of Baywatch. His eyes are fixated on Pamela Anderson’s breasts as she runs down the beach wearing a small red bikini.
“There are six corporations which own basically the entire media as we know it,” explains Noonkesser. “Starting with a new merger in Universal and a company called Vivendi, better known as the colossus of the privatized water industry. You’ve all been to ‘Universal Studios’ theme park, I’m sure, right?”
The entire class smiles with delight. “Yeah, I thought so. Next you have ‘News Corporation’, headed by a man named Rupert Murdoch. They own the Fox network and many other forms of media, and they pull in a mere 13.5 billion dollars a year.
Then there’s ‘Viacom’, which owns MTV, VH1, and CBS. They’re worth about 12.8 billion dollars.
Next on the list is ‘Bertelsmann’, which is raking in around 16.3 billion dollars a year mostly in Europe.
Our friends at Disney are next, making 23.4 billion dollars a year. They also own ABC and of course practically a million theme parks.
Last on the list is, of course, ‘AOL/Time Warner’, making a very modest 31.8 billion dollars in revenue. They own around 12 TV/Film companies, 29 cable/digital operations, 24 book brands, 35 magazine titles, and America Online has about 27 million subscribers easy.
Now with only 6 companies owning and controlling everything we see on a day to day basis, what do we do about this?”
“Nobody cares about it,” Rebecca says from her desk. “American people are just plain lazy. They don’t even have a clue.”
Ralph Bernard scratches his crotch as he struggles to find his lost remote buried somewhere under the cushion of his thrift-store-bought recliner. Getting up from his own personal heaven for a few seconds seems like almost an impossible feat to attempt, however, so he decides to leave the station where it is, and stop all the worry. Unfortunately, he’s stuck watching an old re-run of “The Andy Griffith Show.” He decides to make the most of it anyway.
“They just eat whatever’s put in front of them, without question,” Rebecca further explains. “Americans are just some byproduct of what television and these corporations have made them into.”
Mr. Noonkesser frowns as he nods in unfortunate agreement. “Yes, you’re right, I believe, but what could we do to make a difference about this?”
From across the room, a voice rings out from a quiet student who hasn’t said much at all. “I wish there was some way to not let these big corporations take over everything. I wish that it all could be more split up and more open.”
The children all turn to see a short little student in the back row that usually tries to go unnoticed. Mr. Noonkesser is excited to hear David finally speak up.
Ralph looks at the clock and suddenly realizes that something is missing. He looks back at the television for the moment, however, finding immediate consolidation.
“This concentration of corporate ownership tends to reduce the diversity of media voices and puts tremendous power in the hands of only a few companies,” Mr. Noonkesser reads a small exert from an article he pulled from www.fair.org.
“An independent media is essential to a democratic society, and that aggressive antitrust action must be taken to break up monopolistic media conglomerates. At the same time, non-corporate, alternative media outlets need to be promoted by both the government and the non-profit sector. So in other words, David, you are exactly right.” David’s face lights up like a Christmas tree, and Rebecca Lewis turns back around and smiles.
At 5:50 in the afternoon, Ralph Bernard’s door opens. Ralph, still absorbed in the wonders of Mayberry, fails to notice.
“I had a good discussion in school today, dad.” Whispers David as he tiptoes by the living room of the small apartment.
“Quiet, son,” Ralph sternly exclaims. “I’m watching television.”
David looks down at the carpet and quietly goes into his room. There he quietly climbs onto his bed and opens his notebook from today, and he silently congratulates himself for writing down every single thing that Mr. Noonkesser had said.
In the other room, Ralph cheers, “Damn it, Barney, you are such a freakin’ moron!”
David reads over the last of his notes, “We must be vigilant, or we won’t be free.”
In the other room, Ralph Bernard slowly falls asleep as the people of Mayberry coax him into a dream world of Pamela Anderson and The Home-Shopping Network. He’ll sleep well.
David, however, has just woken up.
David, however, has just woken up.
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Have a lovely week, readers. I'll see ya on the flipside.
-M
1 Comments:
damn you mcclane! now winston the goldfish bitches when i try to watch ESPN!
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