We the Media

The main message of this book is that big media corporations are basically taking over. It is informing the reader that these big corporations are taking over all the smaller ones. There are also advertisements everywhere keeping us on top of the materialistic world.

There was one article in the book that I really liked because it talked about this directly. It is called Moving Beyond the American Dream by Sut Jhally. Jhally talks about how citizens of the United States follow the American dream and that the reason why we follow it is because it has a massive presence in popular culture. Jhally goes on to say that the success we are encouraged to strive for is always linked to the acquisition of goods. All of this is fueled by the most influential cultural industry in the United States: advertising.

Advertisements are everywhere we look. We are advertisements ourselves. Brand names and logos are displayed on the clothing we wear and we are constantly bombarded with ads on television, radio and billboards. It is getting outrageous as to how much companies are willing to pay to get a commercial on TV. One minute of air time during the Super Bowl cost $2.4 million (We the Media, 40).

This is ridiculous. We, as a North American society can barely make our own decisions anymore because commercialism has such a big influence on us.