Stifling Creativity in the U.S. Media
Uploaded by sandpiper1 on Oct 26, 2011
This paper explores the relationships between creativity, liberalism, and the U.S. media, and concludes that the increasing corporatization of the media, and its concomitant conservatism, is robbing the country of a vital opposition voice. (6+ pages; 1 source; MLA citation style)
I Introduction
A debate rages these days, between conservatives who claim they’re sick of the ‘liberal media’ and liberals who say they haven’t seen anything liberal in the media for years. There is also a debate about whether journalists and writers in the media should be creative or simply report the facts.
This paper will examine the ways in which their occupations and organizations influence and constrain (if they do) creative people in the U.S. media; it will also explore whether and to what extent creative media people seem independent.
Because it seems to be such an obvious choice, we’ll start with an exploration of the idea of the ‘liberal media.’
II The ‘Liberal Media’
Most people would like to believe that it is the job of the media to report facts rather than either giving personal opinions or seeking to drive events. But most people today also recognize that the media is not unbiased, and that it does in fact often seek to shape public opinion rather than report it.
It’s difficult to state with any degree of accuracy where the idea of the supposed liberal bias in the media started, but it’s certainly not an exaggeration to say that conservatives use the charge of media liberality to condemn any coverage that doesn’t fit into their agenda. It may be that because the term ‘media’ can also apply to television and film, and because there are frequently programs and movies that depict sexual material in a frank and open way, conservatives object to all of it. (I should state that of course there are many conservatives who do not hold the extreme right-wing views of a Pat Robertson or Rush Limbaugh; but these more moderate people no longer seem to have much part in the current debate. Instead, the conservative movement has swung much further to the right, to an almost reactionary status. There is no such corresponding swing to the left.)
What we are left with, then, is a strong conservative bias in the media, which should be obvious to anyone who considers the number of shows on talk radio. There are quite literally hundreds of...