How media control people today?

Tengiz Rustamkhanli ENG 101-D section-21744 March-27-2016 What kind of power controls our world or the people today? To answer this question, we have to think of the power which can change people’s life to bad and to good way. The answer is Information. Information is not only about newspapers or news websites but it could be anything we hear about something or someone or can even be a entertainment. Media owners obtain this information and use it for their own benefit. Therefore, we can say that information by the media can be given or obtained, harm someone’s status or change their behavior or come even a situation where we don't have control. Firstly, information can be gained or be given to someone. For example, in today’s media if you have trending news it is possible to sell it to other news agency. In The Night Crawler (Gilroy, 2014) there were scenes where Bloom tried to sell his news on tapes he recorded to the news agency of Nina Romina. There was also a scene where he tried to sell the video to Loder, a cameraman because Bloom got a better view of the dead body. Media owners try to show the best look of their information. Therefore, getting there first or having the best recording of the information means you are ahead. Information controls people and it can hurt or change them. Adorno (as cited in Gauntlett, 2008, 25) claims that “we are still drones, manipulated by the system to want the pleasures which it offers, and satisfied with the daily diet of entertainment which it pours forth.” Entertainment gives us pleasures where we are still controlled and manipulated by it. Therefore, TV shows like Pop Idol and American Idol are examples of these shows. It is entertainment which leaves a  information in people’s mind where later they will talk about it or write about it. The stars in these shows control people by showing their movements or clothes, which people could use and also talk about it. Another example could be Fiske. Fiske (as cited in Gauntlett, 2008, 29) uses Madonna as a woman singer who created a bond with people using her patriarchal and feminine image. If the news and magazines talk about Madonna and her new look or new songs, this is information. The information Madonna created with her image to people. This is also called infotainment. There is also information where people just need it. Postman and Powers (2010) argue that moving pictures, videos with sound and images of the important events get more attention of people. If it is displayed by TV, this creates more interest for audience. If the people has relatives where violence had taken place, people are forced to look at TV. For that reason, it is the only source of information they can find about their relatives or else they cannot figure out just by sitting on a chair. (p.44). In The Night Crawler (Gilroy, 2014), at the end when Bloom told Rick to film the gunman inside car, claiming that he was dead. But when Rick tried to film, he got shot by the gunman and died. Bloom tried to get the information as perfect as possible because he knew that it was a big capital. Sometimes, important informations takes big risks. This big risk took Rick’s life away. The information controlled both Rick’s and Bloom’s mind. At the end, when Rick died, there was nothing Bloom could do anything but just record his death. This proved that media and information has control over us but we don’t have control on it anyhow. Word count:597  Reference List Fox, J. et al (Producer), & Gilroy, D. (Director). (2014). The Night Crawler [Motion Picture]. United States: Open Road Films. Gauntlett, D. (2008). Media, gender and identity: An introduction. London: Routledge. Postman, N. & Powers, S. (2010). TV news as entertainment. In A. N. Eken,B. Rodrigues, H. G. Atabaş, J. Harris, M. Güçeri, M. L. Bilgiç, S. Tack&Z. İ. Önel, Contemporary issues in focus (pp. 183-186). Harlow: Pearson CustomPublishing. 1 2 3