Read “Information is Power“ in my new website:
Give Fruit a Chance
We live in the golden age of communication. Unimaginable amounts of information travels around the globe at an increasing rate. Hidden knowledge is coming afloat, breaking news can reach billions of people in a matter of seconds. Truths and lies spread like wildfire.
That is why we must be careful about who we listen to. Money and power control much of what is available, and countless of sources are less than unreliable.
We have seen multiple instances in the history of mankind where those in power manipulated the information available to achieve their own selfish goals. The practice of book-burning is as old as the printing press. If you search for “list of book-burning incidents” on Wikipedia you will find over 100 examples of notable book burnings that have taken place throughout history. The list spans from antiquity to the year 2016. (1)
Book burning is only one way of controlling public information. Today, large corporations and governments manage all major media channels including television, digital and printed news, radio, and movies. Not even the Internet is safe, especially since the U.S. Federal Communication Commission repealed net neutrality on June 11, 2018.
In the United States, the trend of media conglomeration has been steady. In 1983, 50 corporations controlled most of the local media. By 1992 that number had dropped by half. In 2020, only five corporations dominate the industry. These business include Time Warner, Disney, Murdoch’s News Corporation, Bertelsmann of Germany, and Viacom. (2) Moreover, an article released by Forbes Magazine on June 1, 2016 shows how 15 billionaires own America’s top media companies. (3)
These facts don’t point towards any wrong doing, but we must realize that most of the information available to the public is controlled by a handful of organizations. This is why it’s so important for people like me to write books like this one.
Thank you for reading!
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Source:
(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_book-burning_incidents
(2) http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/democracyondeadline/mediaownership.html
