Are we communicating in the age of communication?

Last night I saw part of a documentary about Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones. I've never been a fan. I was born into music in a strange crux between the 60's and the 70's which saw the end of the Beatle's era (which never influenced me either) and the beginning of the golden age of black music - of which I became an ardent fan to this day.

Mick hits 60 this month.

What caught my eye about the film, however, was how the media captured what in essence was a cultural revolution, almost a civil war, in the West. The youth was exploding in anger over what they felt was an older generation in charge of their lives that had only selfish intentions in mind. Senseless wars, profiteering, corruption, and hypocrisy was what the leaders in the US, Europe, and the rest of the countries in power were spawning - at least in the view of the "flower generation."

Jagger and the Stones were at the epicenter of that movement, albeit unintentionally, and TV, print, radio, and every conceivable media outlet were there to devour it all. In some instances, according to the film, even acting as catalysts of incidents themselves in order to provoke "news."

Images of the Vietnmam war, civil unrest, police abuse, massive

Malcolm Brown's epic photo of a monk protesting the war.
What would you be willing to do for your convictions?

demonstrations, and civil disobedience framed the Stones's recounting. The images made me realize the sorry state of media today, in the so-called age of information and social media.

The Vietnam war was probably one of the most thoroughly covered wars in modern communications history (not that the history has been that long, mind you). And such coverage and other images of the atrocities committed by the governments of the time became a force for change in attitudes and the public's
perception of their leaders as well as a questioning of their values. Some say the media's coverage prompted the end of the Vietnam war.

So, what's going on with the news media today? 

What are they covering and to what extent are they molding social and political discourse?

Men and women are going through shit right now
to defend someone else's profits.

Think about it: How many daily images do you receive from the war fronts in Iraq and Afghanistan? What about coverage of the untold dirty wars the US is carrying out in all other parts of the world?

Between Anthony Weiner's uncontrollable dalliances, the Royal couple's baby, and the Pope on tour in Brazil, we're really not getting much of value.

Sure, there's the train crash in Spain, and the civil unrest in Cairo (at least someone is protesting the status quo somewhere). And there are exceptions: HBO's Vice, a gritty, young, irreverent news program that dares go where Fox won't even consider. But for the most part, we are kept in ignorant bliss.

News has become entertainment (see CNN Headline News). Journalism has become celebrity gossip. Public discourse has become a series of tweets by twits, mostly. And in the meantime, we're kept in the dark about how slowly the government is controlling our thinking and our actions like never before.

Headline News Dr. Drew commenting on
Winer's wiener. Seriously?

I'm still amazed at how little is said or discussed about Obama's obsessive spying of US citizens via intercepting cellphones, emails, Web postings such as this one, and the use of remote controlled weapons of war on US soil.

Who cares if we feel safer at night, right?

Facebook was supposed to be an outlet for social interaction, democratizing communications, much like YouTube was supposed to empower us to become our own filmmakers, news reporters, what have you. But has it happened? Are we really communicating our fears, our discontent, our frustration with the powers that be? Or are we just "entertaining ourselves to death?"

Meanwhile I'm concerned that writing more than two or three paragraphs will turn off readers... Because there aren't many left with the will to go beyond a few dozen words.

It's just too damn hard to read, let alone think... <<Yawn>> Time to get my Netfix on!

- Roscoe