I recently stumbled across a newer version of the Midnight Oil song, “Beds Are Burning.” 80’s music burned itself on my teenage brain and this was one of my favourite songs. Actually, I tend to be partial to a good protest/social awareness song.
Media evokes and provokes. However, producers seem to want us to believe that media can only produce good. Think of all the money raised by “We Are the World.”
Now if you have the audacity to suggest that some of the media that is produced has a negative effect – even just the effect on a child’s worldview that may not be our collective best interest – you will be accused of being hysterical, uninformed, simplistic.
Is it really possible that media works only one way, for good and never for evil?