Mass media

The mass media is, currently, one of the most powerful and influential social institutions. Whilst information society demands more and more means of communication, mankind gets used to reading and watching the news without much criterion. Also, biased information has been massively broadcast, and quite often its consumers have not been aware of it.

The media has great influence over people's decisions, not only concerning advestisement and consumption. It also plays an important role when it comes to political agenda or religious propaganda. Therefore, the same journalistic fact may have biased and controversial versions.

When journalists cover a military conflict, for instance, they tend to highlight some facts and omit others. Frequently, instead of a personal decision, that is due to editorial interests. The recent conflict involving the Israeli and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip showed that the media coverage may be influenced by political and governmental decisions. Especially due to the fact that journalists were barred from doing their job by the Israeli Army.

Therefore, whenever one reads or listens to the news, one must take into consideration that what is issued or transmitted has to fulfill commercial and political purposes, previously established. Thus, the truth one is told is not necessarily the truth.

Future is now

The greed-is-good mantra of the free-market's capitulation to the de facto nationalisation of the banking system in virtually the entire Western industrialised world is at the core of the worst economic crisis of capitalism since Great Depression. What might one expect from now on?

In a country founded on African slavery, the ascension of an African American to the White House is historic. Nevertheless, no one should expect that positive social, political and economic changes will come from Barack Obama without pressure for them.

On the other hand, climate change and global warming have contributed to food price inflation all over the globe. Starvation may be a chaotic scenario, but it is more and more likely. Meanwhile, farming is still subsidised in most developed countries, what makes fair trade infeasible.

In spite of Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip and Obama's administration's approach to it, just breaking the stifling conservative orthodoxy of George W. Bush's era would make liberalism a more viable ideological alternative for the ones who want to see real change.

by khalil@bendib.com