Here ye! Here ye! Here ye lies the most corrupt, biased, sensored "news" source known to man: Mainstream Media!
As dusk turns into dawn, as winter proceeds spring, as death gives way to Life, we celebrate a shift in what it means to be an "eyewitness" to historical events from Hong Kong to Honolulu. Social media, although controversial, is a force to be reckoned with. So much so that the Iranian government disabled all social networking sites and world wide web activity to prohibit access to the real time developments of the Iranian protests.
As an amateur poker player plays it safe, the Chinese followed suit by shutting down mobile phones, Internet, blocked Twitter and their native equivalent, Fanfou during the riots in Xinjiang. In the interest of giving true journalists a chance to give us more of the same "fair, balanced and objective' news we've come to take as a joke. The latest developments in this media "war" is indicative of how much control we truly have. Citizen journalists have come to take our power back from the governments we entrusted it to. Some things need structure and rules of engagement; our Voices aren't one of them.
While watching Additional Scenes of Corpse Bride with my daughter, I learned that the movie's setting was loosely inspired by the Victorian Era. During this time period, the news source was a single announcer who literally yelled the latest developments handed down to him by word of mouth in the village while ringing a bell. Undoubtedly, news travels fast and today we have the blessing and curse of images that can be altered, manipulated and falsely narrated. Yet, there is something pure and quite simple we can learn take from the Victorian era: Less is More.
Alas, there is hope for media after all. Simply typing 140 characters and providing a link to a video or picture capturing real time footage is all the news we need. Social media sheds new light on " A picture is worth a thousand words" and grants millions of us the Freedom of Speech to state our opinions, debate over the nature of events and a chance to make history whether you are a citizen of Beijing or Freedom Fighter of Tehran.
All good things surely must come to an end......
I think we've had enough........Stop the "Press!"
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