The Media

Recycling an entire industry!

I might as well fess up: I’ve got little sympathy for the media; I don’t like how they’re used and I don’t like what they’ve become. Sixty years ago, Marshall McLuhan said, “The medium is the message.” In other words, the media’s message isn’t what matters. What really counts is the medium itself. At the time, McLuhan’s thesis was highly relevant, even revolutionary. But his concept advances a very specific theory that technologies are extensions of human beings. He might as well have said, “The medium is a message in and of itself.”

When McLuhan signaled the advent of the global village, television was still young. Kennedy hadn’t been assassinated yet; few people, and even fewer Americans, could locate Vietnam on the map, and hippies were just starting to roll their joints. Then events accelerated, and we soon learned that what seemed like good news was really bad news. Meanwhile, media moguls pondered the significance of the McLuhan declaration. They acknowledged his genius; they took him at face value. The medium is the message, so anything goes!

That’s when things started to go south. Media strategists discovered what grabbed the masses. The answer was simple: disaster. An economic equation fired media barons’ imagination: disaster = higher ratings, and the sum of the two boosts advertising revenues and therefore shareholder profits. Bingo!

The formula may seem a little simplistic, but it neatly sums up what parameters drive the media in our societies. Sure, some people have concocted variations, purporting to pursue lofty societal or national missions. And we can be thankful for quality specialized networks. Still, nothing could match the dominant industry formula. Little has changed in forty years, but now at least things are crystal clear.

The first to feel the impact of the cozy relationship between disaster and the media were the industry and the people who worked for it. Events traumatized them and the word “courage” lost all meaning for them. JFK’s assassination was a case in point. The media threw in the towel. Ever since, they’ve been running around in circles, mesmerized by technological advances they witness but can’t control. They’re muzzled and unwitting hostages in the global village. They go about performing their role, not knowing what else to do. They have no idea what they’re talking about. Worse still, they completely misunderstand their public.

The media are like a vast school of fish. An event occurs and they chase after it; another event happens and they drop the first and run after that! They are on automatic. Overwhelmed by events, they’re perpetually playing catch-up and rather proud of it. Bewildered and bemused, they abdicate their social role and stifle their imagination for the benefit of the market economy. And so today, it’s showbiz all the way, and reality shows recreate Adam-and-Eve psychodrama in an earthly paradise of ratings. But that’s not all. The media are perfectly comfortable feeding like vultures on the world’s heritage.

Their leaders make a great show of kindness and benevolence toward the public. At a loss what to do, they cheerfully serve up antediluvian “family values.” They tell each other they’re reaching the greatest possible number of people. Despite the charming and creative image they project, they’re amplifiers of catastrophe and producers of stress, past masters in the art of kitsch. 

They’re afflicted with a weird condition. No one knows its origin, but I call it the “know-it-all” syndrome. “Listen, to me, look at me, read what I’ve written, I’ll tell you, I’ve got the answer, I know everything, and what I don’t know, doesn’t exist, but I can simulate it …” Things just can’t get any better! They spend most of their time telling us the same things over and over. It’s like a mantra. It’s as if they’re trying to convince themselves. And to vindicate themselves, they churn out the same programs, excerpts, songs, and articles day after day, year after year. In fact, all they do is repeat the same things over and over. Innovation is an alien concept. The media exist and prosper thanks to redundancy: the most insidious and widespread WMD in history. 

And surfing network news, what do you find to your dismay? Anchors reading the same text about the same current event in the same authoritative tones as if they’ve actually witnessed the event they’re talking about. And what about the poor foreign correspondents who risk their skin to fill a 30-second spot so the news editor can feed viewers a daily dose of anxiety? This puffed up realism is symptomatic of profound trauma.

Not knowing what else to do, the media help perpetrate the biggest scam in modern times. The media offer their substitutes for reality, truth and meaning. But who has authorized them to play the role? Worst of all, they’re pretentious. And introspection is the furthest thing from their minds. Desperately clinging to their jobs, they do everything they can to convince us that the world we live in is toxic, negative, unstable and, above all, extremely dangerous. That way they protect themselves, telling you and me we need them for our “peace of mind.” The media are to the human spirit what greenhouse gases are to the earth’s atmosphere. Danger: slow death ahead.

This may seem like a scathing indictment of the media, but the fact is that most people in the industry would admit they are part of an immense problem. But that’s no excuse; it’s more a confession of guilt and impotence. To whom it may concern: there’s no Viagra for the will … Apart from our educational systems and democratic institutions, the sector most in need of reform is the media. When I look at all this, I can’t help rejoicing at the prospect of recycling an entire industry; the project will generate thousands of new jobs for liberated young people bursting with imagination.

Does life turn you on?

Jean David

Abstracts of Quel Cirque, Ma théorie générale de la réalité. 2005