User:Hypemike23/sandbox

Main article: Mass Media There is an article that argues 90 percent of all mass media including radio broadcast networks and programing, video news, sports entertainment, and others are owned by 6 major companies (GE, News-Corp, Disney, Viacom, Time Warner, and CBS). According to Morris Creative Group, these six companies made over 200 billion dollars in revenue in 2010. More diversity is brewing among lots of companies, but they have recently merged to form an elite which have the power to control the narrative of stories and alter people's beliefs. In the new media-driven age we live in, marketing has more value than ever before because of the various ways it can be implemented. Advertisements can convince citizens to purchase a specific product or have consumers avoid a particular product. The definition of what is acceptable by society can be heavily dictated by the media in regards to the amount of attention it receives. The documentary Super Size Me describes how companies like McDonald's have been sued in the past, the plaintiffs claiming that it was the fault of their liminal and subliminal advertising that "forced" them to purchase the product. The Barbie and Ken dolls of the 1950s are sometimes cited as the main cause for the obsession in modern-day society for women to be skinny and men to be buff. After the attacks of 9/11, the media gave extensive coverage of the event and exposed Osama Bin Laden's guilt for the attack, information they were told by the authorities. This shaped the public opinion to support the war on terrorism, and later, the war on Iraq. A main concern is that due to this extreme power of the mass media, portraying inaccurate information could lead to an immense public concern.