New Letter to the President

Dear Mr. President,

On behalf of America, I would like to portray to you my opinion on media. Media is an evil, manipulative corporation but it is also a human right. This controversial topic sets forth a substantial amount of criticism and a fine line should be set between what is just media, and what is immoral media. As our president it is your duty to create this imaginary line of what is right and wrong in the subject of media, but perhaps my opinion can help sway your choice. Media has the power to start or end a war, ruin a persons life, bring great pain to people, cause suicides, or it can even just express which team won the most recent NBA game. There are examples of controlled media around the world and media is used to manipulate any and every human being, but can even bring forth the truth to vital predicaments, for example the revolution of a country. The question set into the open is should media be controlled?

Popular media is such a controversial divisive topic mainly because it can bring so much good and on the other hand, can cause so much destruction. Media is a powerful tool that can do anything from getting a person to buy a product, to convincing someone to think and act a certain way. I do not believe media should be controlled to a certain extent, the people have the right to know everything, but the way everything is presented is not beneficial to this country. People believe certain talk show hosts and anchormen religiously and that can become a problem when biased news corporations are manipulating half the country. People around the globe idolize American popular culture, according to Todd Gitlin, author of the article, “Under the Sign of Mickey Mouse and Co.” who states, “American popular culture is the nemesis that hundreds of millions – perhaps billions – of people love, and love to hate” (Gitlin, 826). Around the world people everywhere aspire to be a part of American culture and it is drastically changing the way this world operates. 

People everywhere have the right to have media fill them in on what is happening in the world, that is a human right. However, it is getting to the point where major corporations, especially in America, are growing too powerful too quickly. These manipulative corporations are allowed to do whatever they want, many of which “study America’s children like laboratory rats in order to sell them billions of dollars in merchandise by tempting, degrading, and corrupting them” (Kuplian, 650) according to David Kuplian, author of “Killer Culture”. The world has drastically changed due to the technology that was unavailable before the new century began. Children are gradually decreasing the time they spend outside and dramatically increasing the time spent in front of the television. If Americas youth is going to be spending all this time in front of the television, there should not be a series of advertisements playing eighty percent of the time with the sole purpose of brainwashing and manipulating society into purchasing their products. 

Corporations are brainwashing kids like never before to buy their products. Commercials on every channel of every station are made to brainwash the viewer into buying their products. Many products are built to expire in as little as two years after creation so that the consumer has to buy the new product available. A prime example of a corporation that does this is Apple. When was the last time you looked around and saw someone with the first iPhone ever made? I doubt it was long after the second iPhone was released. Every time a new product is made by this company there is a line around the block at every store just to trade in their old phone for a newer version that is practically identical. According to Matt Rosoff, author of business insider article Lawsuit: Apple Made Upgrade Break Old iPhone stated “A lot of customers--myself included--found that the "upgrade" to iOS 4 created crippling performance problems on older phones” (Rosoff). Apple designed an upgrade to make old phones virtually unusable for the sole purpose of getting the consumer to purchase the newest version. Practically every American corporation is evil and money hungry and will stop at nothing to keep gaining more and more power and money. Corporations in America have far too much power, be it media or consumer based corporations, and in many situations these go hand in hand. 

There needs to be something done to stop these corporations in their tracks. It is unfair when huge organizations such as McDonalds and Wall Mart are coming into small towns and taking all the business. How are new small businesses supposed to thrive in an economy run by huge corporations? The media is basically allowed to state what they want and can be completely biased with no penalty. This topic is so controversial because of the first Amendment stated in the Constitution, however that can not justify the manipulations and corruptions occurring daily. Corporations in America have way too much power, they build their items in sweat shops across seas for very cheap and over price them to make an exponential profit. This system causes the wildlife and natural preservatives to die off due to deforestation. This process has been on-going for decades as I am sure you are well aware. One way around this problem would be to set a high tariff on American based corporations that branch out of the country to create factories around the world. This would be more profitable for America for many reasons. It would create more jobs for Americans, because major corporations would have more of an incentive to stay on American soil. This would decrease the national unemployment rate and boost pride in many Americans. 

There are many problems that need to be solved, and I am not looking for an immediate answer. However, I do hope this letter reaches you and perhaps causes you to look at some different issues at hand. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Ryan Lubell

Works Cited

Gitlin, Todd. "Under the Sign of Mickey Mouse & Co.." http://dlib.info. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 May 2013. <dlib.info/home/lbai/Mickey%20Mouse>.

Kupelian, David. The marketing of evil: how radicals, elitists, and pseudo-experts sell us corruption disguised as freedom. Nashville, Tenn.: WND Books, 2005. Print.

Rosoff, Matt. "Lawsuit: Apple Made Upgrade Break Old iPhones - Business Insider." Business Insider. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2013. <http://www.businessinsider.com/lawsuit-apple-made-upgrade-break-old-iphones-2010-11>.