Hobo Clown Egg

During the last century newspapers and the new media were neutral and did not allow their viewpoint to create partisanship within political landscape. However, with more choices to choose from for media consumption, the media must target smaller audiences that share similar interests. Such as conservatives, Liberals, sports fanatics, history buffs, and shopaholics. As John Stewart once said at his rally for restoring sanity and or fear "the press can hold a magnifying glass up to our problems illuminating issues heretofore unseen, or they can use that magnifying glass to light ants on fire and then perhaps host a week of shows on the sudden unexpected, dangerous flaming ant epidemic" (p5). So if the media can keep the attention of enough viewers focused on the next "flaming ant epidemic" (p5) (e.g. congressman's sexual indiscretions, conspiracy theories about the president birth certificate) (p5), the media can attain higher ratings and earn more in ad revenue. Each development influenced American culture by giving the people more choices. Cell phones for example allow its users to learn about the news through their apps. With so many channels on TV the news media has to find a way to keep their audiences entertained which can create a divide among Americans by differentiating ourselves by saying we are either a democrat or a republican. The internet changed the media landscape by allowing all kinds of people to comment on certain topics or issues that may or may not affect every day Americans. Since the internet's inception it has put people on somewhat of an even playing field with the mass media where it is always open and cannot be censored in a democratic society. Newspapers used to be the main source for news until the internet and TV became a more popular medium for news on politics and stories. With TV news networks because they are so biased they tell you what so think about, we as a nation have a lot of problems and all they can talk about is what some celebrity did to get arrested. If the more spent more time talking about issues that actually mattered like fixing our crumbling infrastructure, our schools, keeping our veterans from living on the street, then maybe our politicians could actually get something done, instead they distract the population with this mind numbing crap that has nothing to do with real issues that will affect our future. Those at the top of the corporate ladder decide the addenda whether it's wasting time talking about useless information or keeping us distracted from the real problems. Fortunately now that the internet has taken on a life of its own power is slowly being taken away from the media. Social media such as Facebook, twitter or even YouTube have become powerful forms of communication where all it takes is a few clicks of the mouse and you views on an issues no matter how mundane can go viral, people can comment on what you say.