Issue 3 – Tuesday 1 August
Who controls the media?
Jon Wright
As well as making all things radio, telly and newspapery, the media centre is also about boosting people’s perceptions and understanding about what the media is, how it works and more importantly, who is behind it. The first of our seminars, ‘who needs information’ looked at the history of media technology and how changes have impacted on control and access.
What has been more significant in opening up information, the internet or when Bibles become widely available to us common folk? We also touched on how new media can let people challenge areas which they feel aren’t fairly addressed.
Our volunteers roamed the village asking ‘are young people represented enough in the mainstream?’ and ‘is it usually positive or negative?’ Most young people felt firmly it’s not enough and too negative. That opinion was shared by people from the UK, Russia, Denmark and Austria.
Some British teenagers thought there was enough coverage of young people, but the focus was on the ‘hoody’ minority (I have a hood on my jumper, I find it very useful for keeping my head warm). The only person who was entirely positive was from Ukraine. What do you think? Our next seminar is Wednesday at 2p.m. in the Golden Monkey Town Marquee. It’s looking at stereotypes in the media… and there’ll probably be dancing.