Media Year 2002
R.I.P
by Norman Solomon
Dissident Voice
December 27, 2002
It's impossible
to adequately sum up any year, and 2002 is probably more difficult than most to
grasp. Bursts of militaristic fervor bracketed the 12 months, which began in
the terrible aftermath of 9/11 with the United States waging a fierce war in
Afghanistan. Now, an even larger war against Iraq seems about to begin.
We can try to
remember the nonstop avalanche of media that came between New Year's Day and
late December, but most of it is forgettable -- if we're lucky. This is a more
or less constant problem in our lives as we avail ourselves of daily mass
communications. Whether the medium is television, radio, print or the Internet,
the vast majority of what passes before our eyes and gets into our ears is not
worth remembering.
The end of a
year lends itself to introspection and reminders of mortality. We don't have
time to waste, and we may fear that we're wasting it anyway! An old TV Guide or
a pile of yellowing newspapers is testimony to the brief shelf-life of media
sizzle.
There's no doubt
that the new media technologies have opened up fantastic possibilities -- and
appreciable disadvantages. For example, take e-mail. By now you probably find
it hard to take. If your inbox is anything like mine, most of it is filled each
day with advertisements and other stuff that just seems like clutter.
Sure, I want to
learn what's happening in a lot of different places, and I'm often glad to hear
from people whose names are unfamiliar. But during the past year alone, the
level of out-and-out commercialism via e-mail has escalated so rapidly that the
computer mode of communication now often seems more like a curse than a marvel.
As for
television, the critique of TV as mostly junk is nothing new. Mad Magazine was
making that point quite acutely back in the 1950s. Now we have a lot more
channels -- and, we assure ourselves, a great deal more sophistication. Oh, and
did I mention the enhanced color and depth-of-field that High Definition
television will soon confer on our great nation?
Despite the
bright spots, TV viewing generally depletes much more than it gives. People
want to feel connected and certainly want to be entertained. But having a large
number of channels to choose from doesn't prevent the choices from remaining
severely limited. And when imaginations can stretch no wider than what's been
green-lighted by corporate sponsors, underwriters, and network executives, it's
time to look elsewhere for the news reporting and creative artistry that can
challenge and sustain us.
The numbing
effects of corporatized media, it seems to me, fit in comfortably with the kind
of militarism that runs through American society and gets unleashed
periodically with yet another war blessed by the man in the bully pulpit at the
White House. A culture accustomed to finding substantial meaning in TV
commercials and an array of phony prime-time shows is unlikely to rouse itself
to human connection and moral action when the nation's powers-that-be decide on
yet another war. While a grisly reality prevails elsewhere, courtesy of the
Pentagon, an air of unreality dominates countless living rooms. "Since no
one seems to live on television," media critic Mark Crispin Miller has
observed, "no one seems to die there."
It would be
preferable to end the year on an upbeat note. But I don't know if I can do
better than to recall the graffiti that the great Latin American writer Eduardo
Galeano tells of seeing written on a wall: "Let's save pessimism for
better times."
When journalists
and artists take risks to do their work with integrity, the results can be
energizing and inspiring. In contrast, the ultimate triumph of routine media is
to make us feel anesthetized and encourage us to be passive (other than going
out and buying things). Yet in the face of personal, political and social
adversity, the habit of
passivity is apt
to be our frequent undoing.
As calendars
cannot stop reminding us, change is constant. Sometimes it seems that only our
awareness is static. But our perceptions, however unspoken, are also evolving.
What we do with them remains to be seen.
Norman Solomon's
new book "Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn't Tell
You," coauthored with foreign correspondent Reese Erlich,
will be published
in late January by Context Books.