The Biggest Issue You Have Never Heard of

I have chosen to join the fight to help stop net neutrality from being taken away. I chose this issue not only because I believe in free speech and use the Internet everyday, but because it is an issue very closely related to my future career: Journalism.
Not only is independent journalism almost totally reliant on the Internet to survive, but it is also becoming more and more the place for mainstream journalism. Big mainstream media companies keep putting more and more money into their online stories and web pages, until on day it will phase out print all together. But for something so important to journalism they seem to be ignoring one of its major issues: net neutrality. The issue has hardly gotten any media attention; it is like the issue doesn’t exist. I myself would not have know about it if someone had not directed me to one of the independent websites commitment to stopping the ending of net neutrality.
I am going to use both my own personal voice to tell people about this issue such as my own blogs and independent publications. On top of that I am going to use my any professional pull I can to get stories about this published in mainstream media outlets. I believe that is the largest problem facing this issue, not enough awareness and that can be rectified by independent blogging as well as finally getting mainstream news coverage. If people were aware of this issue I am sure the will be as outraged as I am and want to do something about it.

A Sneaky Culture

I collect sneakers. I realize to most this seems like a strange hobby for a man, however I assure you it is a big thing now among hip young urbanites. Finding rare Nikes and Jordan, along with some other less known brands has become an interesting subculture and good marketing fueled it all.
Sneaker culture is like another participatory culture, there are forms where people trade gossip about upcoming shoes, show off their collections and even try and sell them. There are blog setup with news and rumors about upcoming shoe releases, and the lot. However the interesting thing about this participatory culture is its close ties to one of the largest corporations in its field and idolizes over consumption. We have all been sold on the shoes as being cool we do not care about the politics of that little swoosh.
The real ironic thing is that these are the same youth that clam to care about causes and will only wear cloths made by lesser-known liberal companies that contain political messages akin to that of the 60’s. So they make you believe you care about these causes, meanwhile you are working against these ideals by over consuming and supporting Nike.
These type of people (including me unfortunately) clam to care about social issues and a disgusted that wealth is so unevenly distributed, meanwhile they are wearing $400 jeans, a $300 jacket, a $75 tee shirt and to top it all off $500 shoes they bought from another collector that paid half of that. It is a great real world example of ironic hypocrisy and of the power of PR. It is a grim future that when the youth culture is no longer based on an ideal or way of thinking, but on a brand. Are we that cheap? Are we that foolish? It seems like it.

Attention Jam

This culture jam was found along San Diego County freeways. Its political stand about the oppression of the third world all in the name of a skewed patriotism and paranoid American Dream of the better off is one that is rarely discussed and often ignored. These types of in your face culture jams really help to bring media forgotten issues back to public attention.
There are also a lot of stereotypes used in order to prove get it’s message across: that not all immigrants are poor leaches trying to sneak into America and steal jobs, just like how Americans are not all intolerant capitalist pigs. I think things like this are of great use to people on the fence about these issues, it shows them the way others view them and makes them ask why and attempt to see it from the other side’s point of view. This type of culture jamming inspires people to learn and better themselves in a way that will stick in there mind long enough to actually have an impact.

Works Cited
Flickr. Sniggle. 25 Nov. 2008 ..

Big Ideals and Blogs

November 25 was buy nothing day, a global event in order to raise awareness about over consumption and I thought this was such a great idea. I was not only going to participate, I was going to get my friends to participate as well. However when the day rolled around I was completely unaware and probably bought just as much as any other day. That is the problem with events like these, they seem great but what do they really do? Create awareness, perhaps a bit, but not as much as they could if people actually participated. I am sure I am not the only one who was intrigued by the idea and wanted to do good but did not for one reason or another. The same thing happened with the panic buy carrots day that was planned on Facebook. There was a huge response to the group and it even got media coverage. However when I checked the group a couple of days after the event most people posted their disappointment at missing it. You see we are a generation of big ideals and blogs. It seems that much of our revolution is simply talking and when finally someone decides to do something we all stand up and cheer, but can make it out on the day of. We have the planning part down, we now need to actually start doing. And not just doing, but actively promoting the events and start really stand up for what we clam to believe in.

Works Cited
"Buy nothing day." Adbusters. Adbusters. 26 Nov. 2008 .
Valentine, Freya. "On May 15th 2008, everybody needs to go out and panic buy CARROTS." Facebook. 15 May 2008. Facebook. 26 Nov. 2008 .

Nothing Neutral About it

The struggle for net neutrality will set the tone for the next century as either one of free expression and progressive thinking, or one of cooperate dominance and public ignorance.
If you are not yet aware there is a certain amount of freedom of information built right into the internet as a medium, in that no matter what the content, ownership or political affiliation a website has, the speed to connect to the website and ease of access to it is the same as all the others. Simply put: the internet gives you the freedom to go where ever you want and see any information you wish with the same level of service.
However there are those who wish to take that freedom away, to strip the internet of its current role as an inexpensive medium for independent and not for profit organization, as well as everyday citizens, and turn it into another sponsor controlled one way medium like TV and Radio.
The telephone companies and ISPs are the ones pushing for this by implementing a two tier system on the internet, in which websites with money would be able to buy a faster connection to their sites and one that could not would have slower service.
The consequences if this where to happen are clear: the Internet would no longer be available to everyone the way it is now and would become another one-way medium owned by corporations like all of the other major media outlets.
Groups like the Council of Canadians are getting people to write Industry Minister Jim Prentice and put pressure on governments to stop this from happening.
The Internet is the base for most of the independent art and expression of ideas in our modern North American culture. It has become central in our free speech and we can’t let them take that way from us.

Media Spiders

The majority of modern media companies are owned by the six largest media conglomerates – and by majority I mean somewhere upwards from 80%. Those six conglomerates are as follows: Time Warner, General Electric, Comcast, National Amusements, News Corporation and The Walt Disney Company. Their holding are staggering as can be seen from the “Media Family Tree posted below.


Fig 1: Media Family Tree (Advertising Ages)
This is staggering, if we focus on just The Walt Disney Company we can see they holdings include, but re not limited to: *
ABC Television, Buena Vista Distribution, Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group, Buena Vista Music Group, ESPN, SOAP net, Lifetime, Disney Channel, A&E Television Networks, ABC Family, Radio Disney, ABC Radio, Walt Disney Studio Entertainment, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, Disney Consumer Products, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, Touchstone Pictures, Miramax Films, Lyric Street Records, Hollywood Records, The Baby Einstein Company Hyperion Books. This is just the tip of the iceberg as many of these are media companies with many holdings of there own.
So what does it all mean? Why should I care? Well the reality of this is basically that almost all of mainstream media on television, radio and in print is controlled by a handful of people. This means that all of our news and all of the views we are presented are controlled by that same handful of people. It means that the views and values of those handful of people are going to be better represented and anything they do not agree with, will not appear in the media they control – which as I stated before is the large majority of today’s media. It is such obvious tyranny that if more people were aware of it I am sure it would be a hot topic. However this is they type of information that can hurt the very people who control the distribution of such information in the mainstream media. This is in fact the first example of the problem with giving so few people so much power. The fact that not many people know this means it has already become a problem.

Works Cited
Endicott, Craig. "100 Leading Media Companies Report; Revenue Hits $268 Billion." Advertising Age. 02 Oct. 2006. Advertising Age. 18 Nov. 2008 .
Kaufman, Ron. "Big Media 2007: For The Love of Money." Trun off Your TV. 2 June 2007. 18 Nov. 2008 .

Stewart to the Throne

The popularity of shows like the Daily Show and The Colbert Report is sad and even more distressing is the fact that the majority of youth get the majority of the other news from programs like it. That said, they have to be some of my favorite shows and I must put myself into that large group of youths who watch if for news instead of one of the big network news programs. Now this may seem very hypocritical to most and really is at this point. However I don’t believe you will think so when I tell you why I think it is sad: because The Daily Show provides more relevant no bias stories than the big news outfits.
It is not like today’s youth are foolish, they have not been taken in by these comedians simply because they are funny – which I must say they truly are. Today’s youth have started getting there news from these shows because they are doing a better job of analyzing the stories and there implicates through comedy than the other news shows. It is a sad state for journalism, politics and the world.
The real problem here is that the news corporations refuse to recognize what the real role of these shows are because it is the same role they have been failing to fill: the role of watchdog. Just as true news reporting is supposed to be the fourth estate – keeping the politicians in check and letting people know when they step over a line – the news parodies are a watch dog of the news corporations, making sure they do there jobs.
However instead of recognizing this and seeing the validity of their criticisms the big news outfits simply file John Stewart and everyone like him under the category of silly dalliance, not worthy to question the judgment of the all powerful newsmen. However I don’t think they will think the same of them when everyone starts going to them for news and leave them without jobs. It will happen if they continue to fail to hold up the values of true journalism, and we will all sit at home and enjoy silly puns and try to forget our horrid social state.