Voice of America verses Pandora’s Self-broadcasting Box

Repeat it many times and you'll begin to believe it

Using the power of the Internet to broadcast a true independent voice; A composite of media bits ParkRidge47

Tonight on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, there were three topics that caught my attention. The first being the marking of the fourth year of America’s War in Iraq! It is shocking to really hear the number of years that this has gone on! The second is the interview with Ann Curry and the clearly megalomaniacal President of Sudan and the amateur campaign advertisement for Barack Obama. These three things relate in a very eerie way.

The last item, a very good editing and superimposition of the video, sound and text was spliced into and altered the message of Apple Computer’s award winning commercial that launched the company in 1984 What makes this advertisement so interesting is its delivery, both in terms of what, how and who. But that aside, there is the more important reaction that it has received. Internet film reminds me of MTV in the 1980’s. On reflection it was something that we looked at because we were thirsty for that type of entertainment. We all knew that it was not very good, but we didn’t care because it was better than what it was before, mainly television shows like Solid Gold, fixed to a specific time, day and formula.

Just as I am writing now on thebookmann and completely unaware of who may read this, the amateur campaign advertising benefits from a sort of for want of a better word, sniper advertising. A quick shot, unseen but dramatic. There shall be many types of product advertising that shall jump and have jumped onto this bandwagon, as this very cheap form of media is drawing so much attention. This attention has some unsettling aftertaste however, and I shall explain why.

On the one hand, everybody and their cousin seems to be filming themselves on camera these days. It seems very freeing, and in some instances even refreshing, as many well crafted careers are made to be seen through the lens of reality. Yet, this ‘reality’ may be as unreal and potentially damaging in ways that no choreographed career can be anticipated.

On the other hand, there is the fact that these types of films can be used in ways that we could never have foreseen, mainly blitzing. They are so cheap that someone with a grudge and time could do the equivalent of telemarketing all of your media toward a particular message. It is hard enough that children today have a hard time knowing right from wrong. It is now apparent that the boundary between truth and fiction is grayer than ever. Truth may become a thing of degree, if it hasn't already.

The Ann Curry interview with the President of Sudan, Omar al~Bashir is chilling, in the way that like the President of Iran, this gentleman uses a level of fiction akin to a conspiracy theory against his country. I am particularly horrified by this because in a strange way, The United States of America has given the world television that causes the very backlash it attempts to avoid. Mr. Al~Bashir is stating a lie so heinous about his own country, and he is using America’s own conspiracy theorists speculations to do so. Layering one meaning over another. Finally, the War on Iraq, four years on was stated as a war longer than World War I, World War II and the Korean War! What an Indictment ! This has been a war the world overall protested against. Yet President Bush found it necessary to write his own fiction to get America to where it is today. A third type of layering.

Tonight the news continued to look at what new media is doing to messages, but really, it is never the media, but the message, as the book is still with us, and radio, and television. So what is essential is to remain hopefully neutral to information until you have had the opportunity to see multiple perspectives. However be very careful while doing so, as all media because they are all about selling, sell you the cover, not the book.~ Adele