Why Media Reform Matters So Very Much

[snot]

From http://www.units.muohio.edu/psybersite/cults/cco.shtml :

    "Research on the topic of conformity began in 1951, when Solomon Asch performed a series of renowned studies.  In his studies, Asch used groups of seven to nine people who were told they were participating in a study on visual perception.  These subjects were asked to match the length of a standard line to three comparison lines.  One would think that this would be a relatively easy exercise, but Asch's groups only contained one real subject.  The rest of the group was made up of confederates who were instructed to unanimously give incorrect responses in some trials.  The results of this experiment found that the control group made errors only five percent of the time.  Those exposed to the incorrect responses conformed to these answers 33% of the time, with 75% of these subjects conforming at least once.  This shows how easily it is to make a person conform in a group situation."

That is, 75% of all people tested were brought to say they perceived a visibly shorter line to be longer than a visibly longer line, simply by putting them in a group affirming this incorrect statement.

When dealing with issues much more complicated and nebulous than the lengths of lines, how much easier to persuade the masses of falsehood--IF you control most of the media!

There's an initiative that far as I know is still pending in Congress, to rollback consolidation and bring back the Fairness Doctrine. If you haven't written your reps. about it already, I urge you to do it now. Info at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=109x21930 , citing http://mediachannel.org/blog/node/189 .

[kansasblue]

1. Take a look IWT news.

www.iwtnews.org I like them very much!

[snot]

2. Seen it, love it. But

unless we can get the masses to start getting their news there INSTEAD of from the corporate media, it helps but does not solve the problem.

I think most folks get most if not all of their news from the big tv networks. And we all know, the news there is almost worse than none at all.

The point is not so much, are there any good outlets left at all that you and I can turn to. The point is, do the majority of the media report based on any real fact-checking, and do they express a diversity of opinion? To me, the answer is, clearly no.

So long as that is the case, whatever work we do on ANY issues will remain largely ignored by the majority of the media and therefore remain largely unknown by the majority of citizens.

[Melodybe]

3. This is why Current is so important

we decide what gets covered and what doesn't.

Sign up if you hadn't already.

www.current.tv

[snot]

4. You go, Melodybe! nt

[mmonk]

5. If we are ever going to get

back the freedoms that have been taken away, avoid more from being taken away, stop the illegal activity of this government, end the lies told to the people.......In other words, return to being free and remain so with an open government, I think this is absolutely necessary. Otherwise, it's going to be very very very difficult.