Screened Out: How the Media Control Us and What We Can Do About it: How the Media Control Us and What We Can Do About it (Media, Communication, and Culture in America)

Series: Media, communication, and culture in America Subject(s): Mass media—Influence Mass media and propaganda Mass media—Ownership Media literacy Mass media—United States Today more than ever, the mass media are the dominant influence in our culture. Markets are becoming global, and simultaneously, media ownership is becoming concentrated in the hands of a very few select conglomerates who, along with media professionals and advertisers, effectively control the information and ideas that impact our society, politics, and lifestyles.Focusing on TV news and television in general, this book examines why this media gate-keeping happens, how it works, who the gate-keepers are, as well as the destructive effects of structuring the viewpoints presented in news and entertainment. Through interviews with major media figures, professionals from a wide range of backgrounds, and civic leaders, the author explains exactly how this modern mind control thrives, and offers practical suggestions for breaking the media stranglehold. "Today's mass media is increasingly accused of stealing our future, killing our culture, and scaring us to death. Screened Out examines why this is happening, who is the culprit, and what we can do about it. Only 12% of the public thinks that the media influences them. If that is true, why would a company spend $2.4 million for one minute of advertising time on the Super Bowl? Clearly, media advertising influences product sales; why, then, would not media programming influence attitudes?". "In Screened Out, mass media scholar and writer Carla Brooks Johnston argues that "corpocracy," de facto government by mega-corporations, is replacing democracy and transforming legitimate communication on the publicly-owned airwaves into propaganda for profiteering. And most of us have no idea what is happening."--BOOK JACKET. A comparison of the cultural and political/institutional dimensions of war's impact on Greece during the Peloponnesian War, and the United States and the two Koreas, North and South, during the Korean War. It demonstrates the many underlying similarities between the two wars. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Foreword Acknowledgments Introduction 1 Stealing Our Futures 2 Killing Our Culture 3 Scaring Us to Death 4 Why Is This Happening? Who Is the Gatekeeper? 5 What Can Be Done? Notes Index About the Author