Media. We all complain about it and the effect it has on society. Almost everyone I speak to wishes the news wasn't so grim, or wants magazine adds to be less provocative. Have you ever thought about what the world would be like without media? To take the US, and take away every kind of media, leaving only bound books in libraries. What would that be like?
Imagine this:
There is no news. No way for the government to communicate with the populous except for written books. The skies are free from billboards, advertising, and no posters line the streets anywhere. People walk around, speaking with each other to find out new information. Word of mouth is the only advertising anyone can employ, leaving countless events unknown. Information passing is stunted, current events encompassing events that happened months ago at the earliest.
The Bad:
There would be no way to actively protest or support anything. By the time news hit the street that a law was going to be passed, is when it is already enacted. As much as we hate advertising, how else would we know what was out there beyond going out to find it. The only way we would know what was happening in other countries would be to actively search for it, or physically go to the other country. If something went wrong, we would have to trust our government completely to handle the situation, and to accurately tell the public what happened. When public officials run for office, the public has to trust what they here and see for themselves, and nothing else.
People would be easier to fool. Without a constant stream of information coming from multiple sources, would we be able to pick out the lies from the truth?
The Good:
With no news, there would be no bad news. There would be no constant stream of information to change and affect how we think. There would be no pressure from the media to fulfill an impossible ideal. There would be no confusion about who to trust, and what to trust. The decision would be simple, to trust books or to trust other people. Our minds would be free from the constant bombardment of imagery, and our streets would be free from the obnoxious billboards that line the sky. Stress would be greatly reduced, for the world would move much slower.
Would you trade knowledge for peace of mind?
Ooh, good topic! Wish I had seen you post it a week ago...
ReplyDeleteConsidering the lack of communication, would government even exist in the form you imply? If you look at the "pre-media" world (I'm assuming you also mean newspapers and bulletins of that nature), you're looking at a very, very long time ago, back when society was basically agrarian. And, even then, news had a tendency to travel along the trade routes.
I think it'd be a very fascinating change, but I don't think it'd be possible with our supermassive global population.
Well, I was going to say it would alienate a lot of people, but then again, how many people read the news anyway?