We've acquired an unhealthy belief that what's significant in the world equals what's in the media.
In parallel with the transformation of the methods we use to communicate, a metamorphosis is occurring in the ways by which we determine what is "out there" in the world—or at least, what is worthy of notice.
Just as our communications have been altered by the quirk of human perception that what is repeated enough times without an effective challenge can become "true," so our sense of issues and their priorities is shaped by a principle that whatever we pay attention to over time must be important. The net effect has been to install those who control what we pay attention to (i.e., the media) in a position of primary authority on what is significant in our world, and what is not.
This is a difficult trap to avoid falling into.
To most of us, it seems only reasonable to accord significance to what the media present, because this is, as far as we know, the bigger world, of which our own direct, personal experience is only a small part.
What we aren't generally aware of is how much judgment and selection goes into the process of presenting the media view of the world.
(c) COPYRIGHT 1998 ROBERT WINTER. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
