Takeover!

After reading Cultural Forum: Media Literacy as the Struggle for Power and investigating the Cultural Environment Movement online, I can easily see the issue that they raise. In any place that power is concentrated in the hands of only a few, problems arise. Inevitably, there is a struggle between those who are privileged and those whose voices are smothered. The way I see it, the entire world is socialized by mass media, and, as mass media is owned by a smaller group of people, this socialization forces the cultural values of the media elite on the disadvantaged. This is not always an intentional act, but, inevitably, there are some who seek to use their power expediently, serving only the interests of their profits, global hegemony, and monopoly.

Those that see media literacy as a struggle for power see that culture reflects what is distributed by the media. I believe that they are largely correct. When the controlling media elite are separated from the mainstream like they are, there is no way that they can properly take into account the opinion of the masses, when they are so distanced from their consumers. Therefore, media forces its view on the people in most cases rather than the media reflecting the norm. It's important to understand that nearly everything is a shade of grey, so, to an extent, the media conglomerates must take into an account the opinion of the public. However, their ultimate capitalistic goal of profit making allows the media conglomerates to use their power for their purposes rather than the purposes of the public.