How Journalists control our minds
Posted by trae_z on January 8th, 2006
Are you the type who has no respect for journalists and reckon they have nothing else to do and so they run their mouth for a living? If you are, then I think you’ve yet to realize the influence they have over our thinking. Because you see, information is what we feed our brains/mind with. And that information is gotten from various media (the internet, news papers, TV, radio etc). And journalists run these various media. Thus we can safely say that journalists control our minds…our lives.
Journalists are constantly on the prowl for stuff they consider news worthy. They get this stuff, work on it and spoon feed it to us babies via the media. We eat it all up, digest it, form opinions in our mind and start talking about it like we’re wise and shit.
Take the case of the 22nd July 2005 killing of a Brazilian man by the London Metropolitan Police. There were a lot of eyewitness but everybody doesn’t run the media. So the very few roving journalists around, who missed the event themselves, get their ass on ground and quiz the witnesses. They harmonize the conflicting statements they get and pass it on to their colleagues who release the stuff as breaking news for the whole world to consume. Commoners, bloggers, and news analyst around the world then start talking and arguing among themselves on the issue. And doing so with some unreliable news statements as their guiding source. In future these inaccurate news statements becomes the reference point for the issue and is treated as truth. Future generations are fed with this info and the life goes on.
So much happens in life but the human mind can’t capture and preserve it all. What is then considered as fact in the future is what is recorded in the various media. But what is recorded is in fact just a tiny fraction of actual happenings. Check out the biography of Catholic Saints and famous people. The Saints are presented as being flawless while the famous are presented as having excelled in their various field of human endeavour. Thus we generations later have them in our minds as super human beings. While in actual fact the rough edges of their life history are sweetened to have nice public appeal. That’s how deep journalist can fuck with our intellect.
It’s plain for all to see they’re the kingmakers. They talk about you positively, we have positive notions of you; they talk about you negatively, we have negative notions of you. Let me come with examples.
The Nigeria you know is basically filled with info from Lagos and Abuja (with little bits and pieces from other famous places) because that’s where a large part of the media is based.
World soccer is centered on the European Champions League (CL) and the English Premier League (EPL) football because it’s what we see, read and hear in the media week in week out. Thus Players in the CL and EPL are the ones we talk about, the ones with the best chance to make their various national teams and the ones most likely to pick up awards. You can’t talk about, pick or give awards to people you don’t see, hear or read about.
The United States controls the world media and so movies, music and culture in all countries has heavy American content. You’ll realize this when you see teenage Nigerian girls discussing about Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston’s break up as if talking about it will put food on their family’s table.
What people in different countries know about other countries is what they get from the media. They thus form strong opinions in their minds from minute news feeds. Example: when we think of the Caribbean’s, we think of scantily dressed women and all day fun on the beach. When we think of Israel, Palestine and the Middle East; we think of suicide bombs and terrorism. When we think of Africa, we think of corrupt politicians, sit tight rulers and illiterate people.
Hence we now know the kind of power journalist (the mass media) possess, we’ll respect them a little more. On the other hand they should go about their business sensible because the mind is a delicate thing. That’s all folks.
Haven’t really read much of son’s work before but I’ve heard him talk on TV. Anyways was looking for a Nigerian journalist to grace my post and Reuben Abati comes highly recommended as a journalist who knows his onions. 
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yep! thankfully i’m very aware of this. that’s why i haven’t been lured away by the EPL hype. people should learn to look at things from all angles.
Yeah, i am aware of this. I dont watch football, so i am saved from this.
The media plays such a big part in our lives, really controls us: the way we think, dress, should look, especially the way we look, and the sad thing is that the women are targeted, cause we are more susceptible to the media hype.
Fuck the media!
WORD!!!