Mid-term Examination
Media and Society
Media is a commercial enterprise. Is the role of media different from the goal of profit as espoused by any other commercial entity?
Media & Modern Warfare
By Sarwan Saleh
To label the media simply as a commercial enterprise, would be the understatement of our technologically armed, morally void generation. I believe the role of the media in the modern world goes far beyond that of a profiteering, commercial enterprise. The media is politics, the media is entertainment, it is you and it is I, it is war. All of these things breed profit. Through this paper I would like to explore the grand scheme behind media, beyond being a commercial enterprise. Also, to investigate how far the profits go, in what form they are delivered and into whose hands they are delivered to.
To understand why media goes beyond the average commercial undertaking, one must define what a 'commercial enterprise' is.
In layman's terms, a commercial enterprise is a business that engages in buying and selling activities on a large scale, for the purposes of making a profit. Now, where the media we know today deviates from this definition is that the product being sold is of a more insidious nature. The goods and services being sold to the audience are not news bulletins and global updates but streams of thought. The media sells us opinions, in the shape of certain highlighted sensitivities in a society, packaged with agenda driven taglines. The media instigates certain political thoughts over others fashioned to appeal to our third world yearning for democracy (or revolution, whatever is more lucrative at the time). Its commercial aspect is a front for something significantly more profitable, the selling of morals and values for the sake...