Just wondering your opinion on the media, whether its american, or any other country.

i belive it works to an extent. Ill explain myself better after i see a few posts here.

In the US, all of the large media outlets - TV, Cable, Newspapers, news magazines, radio - are all owned by a few corporations who are controlled by even fewer people. These people all have their own agenda to push. in some cases they do not overtly push that agenda, but their own bias is reflected in the people they hire to do the work. The bias is most evident in the news they do not report or gloss over. For the last several years I have been getting much of my news from the internet. But now, even the internet sources are being controlled more and more by these same interests. If they can't control them they try to discredit them. I always try to look at several different sources on anything even remotely controversial.

You think media is controlled by a few people in US? HA!
A nice vacation in my beautiful country Italy could boost your appreciation towards american media

Take a look at my posts in the "Freedom" thread.

I agree with Delphinus. The rich and powerful have always controlled the media. However with the free access to the internet that we now have it inables those who care to be able to get access to information and do the occational fact checking.

IF anyone cares to see a bit of different media programming--watch Keith Olbermann on MSNBC weeknights.. Show is called COUNTDOWN and it is great!

i no longer watch tv (it is too expensive, and i dont want to pay that much for commercials half the time.)
all of the news i get is from friends, or the internet.
the news sites are full of crap usually. sometimes i see the news at a friend's house, or my grandparents, and they talk about the most stupid things. who cares if britney is fat? who cares who is getting sued this week? why does it matter if some liquor store got robbed? i want to see things that actually matter.

Not to sound too smug, or anything, but... I think that we in the UK have one of the best on air news media outlets, in our BBC - TV and radio, and online. It aint perfect because each program or newscast is somewhat weighted by the person in charge of producing it, and the editorial staff doing the grunt work. I do believe, however, that there is a minimum of government interference because of a governing board with a reputation for prickly independence. And no commercial pressure whatsovever on the news side. Many years ago I lived in Canada and , at the time, could have said the same about the CBC.

As to how even the semi-trusted BBC affects my life? Well, I'm just not the news junkie I used to be. News, even unfiltered news, is cyclical. The same themes repeat, over time, over and over again. Just like life, really. I do , however, think that a good news source, or sources, is/are essential for anyone just starting out in their 'thinking' lives. Your 'pals' or parent's views of the world will be just as coloured as commercial news enterprises are, though for non-profit reasons. Get as much info as you can, from as many trusted sources as possible, and try to make your own mind up. Accepting that it is not possible to get ALL the info you need. Ever.

Good thought Chesto, I agree the BBC is an outstanding newscast. You can see the influence when you watch it though, i can watch my 5:30 world news here in america, with storys about whatever, and at 10:30 on PBS see the same storys with a british accent on the BBC world. Personally i think "free press" died during the Civil rights movement era, to Doll up storys about people getting the crap beat out of them by goverment people, or to "hide certain truths about certain a certain war similar to todays.

Nobody can say that it has been going on longer than that in america anyway, because i can here broadcasts from 1919 to 1949 from the radio in various parts of the world, on the internet.

So maybe again the media started blocking or doing certain things on the advent of the TV. Who knows. Please continue folks.