A POTENT DRUG IN OUR CULTURE

            Over the years, we have come to know different kinds of addictive drugs and their disastrous effects on the human health. But there is one drug which is silently taking the entire world under its spell. This drug is so wide spread and so addictive that everyone in almost every part of the world has it in their house. Almost every child and adult in the world is under the influence of this drug every day, every hour, every second, to the point where it actually controls their mind. This is the younger generation’s drug, this drug is ‘Television’. In the book, “The last hours of ancient sunlight”, written by Thom Hartmann; the author talks about that global warming and climate change issues that we face today. One of the many issues that he points out that is affecting our thoughts about global warming is the influence of television on our everyday thoughts and decisions. More importantly, he also shows his concern about how the information presented on television is controlled by a few. He states, “People set aside large portions of their lives to watch a flickering box- hours every day. They rely on the box for the majority of their information…even though the contents of the box are controlled by a handful of corporations…” (130). The author explains how everyone depends so much on ‘The box’ for information about their world, despite the fact that the information or knowledge is in the hands of very few people. According to the article, “These 6 Corporations Control 90% Of The Media In America” written by Ashley Lutz;

http://www.businessinsider.com/these-6-corporations-control-90-of-the-media-in-america-2012-6

 in 1983, 90 % of the media in the U.S was owned or controlled by 50 companies whereas by 2011, 90 % of the media was controlled by 6 corporations, namely, CBS, Time Warner, Disney, Viacom, News Corp. and GE. In other words, the information acquired by 277 million Americans every day is being provided by only 232 media executives. This number is alarming. This is a critical problem because that means that what people are led to believe about the entire world is a point of view of a few, even though if it is not accurate. The dangers of this is also discussed in the article, “Merger Mania in the Media: Can We Still Get All the News We Need?” by John H. McManus,

http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v7n1/mediacon.html

 where he mentions that “Diverse media ownership can create the robust and unconstrained debate that allows the best ideas to prevail. Consolidation, in contrast, constricts the number of information providers and can cut down on the debate that is essential to a democracy.” He is stating the fact that when the media is more diverse the more information the public can acquire, leaving room for democratic debates but if the information from almost every outlet is provided by one source, the public will only get one perspective hence unbalancing the scale of free thoughts.