Media & Consciousness


"Out minds have been so super-saturated with slick simulations of reality, that for some of us, it is growing increasingly difficult to care about the difference…not just between "reality" and "fantasy" but between ones own fantasies and those mass-produced by the corporate imagination killers. "
-Antero Alli- from World Entertainment War

" Given the pervasiveness of television, we already possess the tools of local to global communication that can transform our semi-conscious drift toward ecological catastrophe into conscious action in support of a sustainable future. However, these tools are not being used to advance civilization; instead they are being used primarily to advance consumption. In the U.S. the average person sees at least 25,000 commercials a year on T.V. Commercials are far more than a pitch for a particular product; they are also advertisements for the attitudes, values, and lifestyles that surround the consumption of that product."
- Duane Elgin- from Awakening the Mass Media to Build a Sustainable Future

"We cannot build a future consciously that we have not first imagined. We desperately need positive views that inspire hope and that provide aligning visions for building a sustainable, compassionate, and creative future." - Duane Elgin

"Because of the power of electronic media to frame the global discussion, it
is essential to transform media from a one-way instrument of social control
into a two-way diologue which empowers and illuminates individuals
and organizations alike." -Brooks Cole www.holocosmos.com

" So we have the appalling situation of the majority of the world gathering nearly identical images over long periods of time from a very small number of gigantic corporations run by a handful of billionaires. " -Jerry Mander

"Young people spend twice as much time with media than they do with their parents and teachers combined."
- American Medical Association 1996

"Television is an instrument of mental cloning on a global scale. That's its primary job: to get everyone in the world- whether they're in the Western industrialized nations or on islands in the Pacific - to view things in exactly the same way, to absorb an identical model of the way life is supposed to be lived. And also to change them internally so they are merged with the larger corporate technological system." -Jerry Mander

"Television may be our social window onto the world, but the view it provides is cramped and narrow. Television may be the collective mirror in which we see ourselves, but the reflection it gives is often distorted and unbalanced. Television may be the primary story-telling machine through which we find shared meaning in our lives, but the stories it tells are typically shallow, violent, demeaning and shortsighted. Television may function as the barometer of social feeling through which we judge the mood of our communities, country and world, but the feedback it provides is often superficial, consumer-obsessed and devoid of soulful qualities." - Duane Elgin

Facts
- TV runs at 30 frames per second (movies at 24). The conscious mind can process about 8 frames per second; hence television and movies tend to keep us from conscious analysis.

" The recent and authoritative Carnegie study (9 years in preparation) concluded that media's effects "established by decades of research" causes "attention deficits, nonreflective thinking, irrational decision making, and confusion between external reality and packaged representations." "

Really Good Articles

Advertising at the Edge of the Apocalypse, by Sut Jhally www.sutjhally.com/onlinepubs/apocalypse.html

World Entertainment War- "Intelligence Report: How to see through Advertising"
By, Antero Alli http://www.speakeasy.org/clear-cut/contents/AnteroAlli.html

In Context Issue- The Ecology of Media

LINKS

Just Think Foundation- media literacy & empowerrment for youth
Whispered Media- a video activist collective- video in support of justice.
Video Activist Network- VAN
ATMA- association of transformative media arts