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Alternative media continues to outpace the traditional media
by Joseph Earnest September 2, 2011
Newscast Media HOUSTON, Texas -- More and more audiences are turning to the alternative media for their information as opposed to the traditional media. The alternative media is less regimented than the mainstream media, and has the ability to instantly break news stories, without the approval of the News Director or some other content manager. There is also the issue of objectivity. Most viewers or readers know when news isn't being objective. They can sense a biased news article or presentation. The problem that the mainstream media faces is that it is owned by the mega corporations, therefore it is almost impossible for the mainstream media to be objective.
Mainstream media also misses a lot of news stories, either intentionally or accidentally, so people are forced to turn to the Internet in search of important stories that matter to them. Most alternative media sites are individually operated, so it is easy for Web publishers to distribute content on Websites, blogs, micro sites and also through social media. Because most news sites duplicate each other's content, they run the risk of losing their relevance, thus, only the sites with the ability to present original news content in a creative and objective way will be the ones that endure.
In many instances, journalists have also had to tone down or abandon their profession completely, because the articles they wrote were offensive or unfavorable to the powers within the government-media complex. This is especially true in third world countries or for journalists working in police states. Many have been jailed or sued in court by their governments, because these journalists wrote articles that their governments disagreed with.
Yet the persecution or prosecution of open-minded thinkers is not new. One can go as far back as Socrates who was condemned to death for corrupting the youth, with his school of thought, and also Aristotle who was condemned for not holding the gods in honor, and later fled Athens saying, "I will not allow the Athenians to sin twice against philosophy," a reference to the execution of Socrates. The philosophers of that time were the journalists who delivered content to the public that they found newsworthy.
We can also see how Galileo was almost condemned to death due to his heliocentric theory that the earth and other planets revolved around the sun. It was widely believed in the church that the sun revolved around the earth, which was the geocentric theory. Copernicus was the first to publish his book The Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres challenging church dogma. He dedicated the book to "the most holy lord, Pope Paul III" and promised to solve one of the major problems the church had been struggling with namely, the creation of a more accurate calendar. The book though, was published the year he died.
Later on, Galileo Galilei who accepted the Copernican heliocentric theory wrote a book in which he demolished all arguments about it. He also used his modified version of the newly invented telescope to discover the mountains on the moon, sunspots, and the fact that the Milky Way is made up of several stars not visible to the naked eye. He also discovered four moons on Jupiter, which meant there were at least 11 bodies in the solar system instead of 7, as claimed by the church.
Most people refused to look through Galileo's telescope because they believed to do so would be an act of heresy. Others who refused to look through the telescope argued "that if God meant man to use such contrivance in acquiring knowledge, He would have endowed man with telescopic eyes."
Others who looked through the telescope claimed that the new objects were not in the sky at all, they were optical illusions caused by the telescope itself.
Yet despite his contributions and being one of the greatest minds of his day, he was ordered to stop writing and at age 70, he was brought before the Inquisition and made to recant his scientific conclusions. He was asked, "If the earth revolves around the sun, then why is it that in the bible Joshua ordered the sun to stand still so he could win the battle? If the earth revolved around the sun, Joshua would have commanded the earth to stand still. Are you saying the word of God is false?"
Galileo could not answer that unexpected question and was placed under house arrest for the remaining years of his life and asked to burn all his writings. He however, continued to write in secret. His work Dialogues Concerning The Two Sciences was smuggled outside Italy, and the old man died in 1642. It wasn't until recently on October 31, 1992, that the Vatican officially absolved Galileo of his "transgressions".
Sir Isaac Newton came along and proved Galileo correct and also the French writer Voltaire who was forced into exile because the French and the Catholic church disagreed with his writings. His books were confiscated and burned, yet Voltaire turned out to be the greatest literary mind in the whole of Europe.
If we fast forward to today, the persecution of great thinkers, and censorship of the media is still present despite the First Amendment that allows freedom of speech. Many journalists in the mainstream media are afraid of offending their supervisors by covering certain topics; other media outlets are afraid of losing advertisers and sponsors if they practice real journalism and ask tough questions; others are afraid of losing their licenses; yet others simply do not have the courage to tackle controversial issues because the corporate media cannot afford to offend the large corporations that sustain it.
It is for this reason that the alternative media will remain ahead of the game as newspaper sales continue to drop and people cancel their subscription services to cable providers as they turn to alternative sources that present news objectively, and content that is relevant to them. Add Comments>>
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