ThirstyFish

Meanness is the state or quality of being offensive, selfish, unaccommodating, nasty or malicious. It is indisputable that mean people exist in every society, but, is the world as mean as we make it out to be?

Professor of communication, George Gerbner argued that mass media makes viewers believe that the world is more dangerous than it actually is. He called this phenomenon The Mean World Syndrome. I'm not sure that I agree. The world is a mean place, but those who are mean often are ignorant of their own meanness. Mass media definitely contributes to drawing a meaner picture of the world. Media makes the world more dramatic, more sensational in order to sell content. It exaggerates the threats and uses fear to manufacture consent. The true meanness in the world exists not what is portrayed in mass media, TV or newspapers, but in the hands and efforts of manipulators who take away our freedom to choose and keep us ignorant.

Song of the Day: Voodoo - Black Sabbath (1981)