Shades of the News

So now we have one business, Nine, that operates across a wide spectrum of traditional, contemporary and emerging technical, media, entertainment and advertising platforms in Australia.

Increasingly we get the news content when and where we want and with most convenience to us. The coffee and breakfast are still tasty whether you are holding them next to a smart phone, laptop or newspaper.

The more significant issue facing each of us continues to be the validity and emphasis of what we are told and provided as information.

The lack of choice of providers in this regard is most pronounced with other aspects of daily life in countries with lesser options in expression and human rights. 

However, the consolidation of media players in societies with small populations like Australia can also negatively impact on popular opinions, communal thinking and the development of democratic trends.

Coverage of news in any country has always been a widespread and effective means of cultural and political control.
So called capitalist economies may seem to allow more diversity in news information, but what happens behind the ownership of the powerful media companies operating there can throw dark shadows.

Most news publications in Asian nations are owned and run by the political parties in power. It is an alien concept and practice to have so called independent news publications surviving and prospering. Previous such attempts like Asiaweek or in Asian editions of American and UK mouthpieces met the inevitable end of not being viable.

So what you read and digest in any form of media we come across has to be strongly tinged with a huge dose of caution and cynicism.

The current USA President is vocal on his stand against the output of media operators like CNN and the New York Times. Each of us also has a preference for what shade of journalism we support, often synchronised with our label of political thinking. 

We tend to get our already existing views of the world consolidated with what we like to be fed, whether on web sites or with our daily paper. 

This brings us next to deal with whether differences of opinion can be twisted to meddling with the so called truth or facts.

A fact is supported by untampered evidence while an untruth is not. An opinion need not be objective as it can be tampered by random experience and selective thought. News dished out to us can be facts, opinions or fake.

Whilst the journalistic profession can have serious concerns about integrity and expression while working for powerful enployers with much financial and political clout, let us remind overselves where the buck stops in news transmission.

If we do not buy it, news provided to us loses its meaning, relevance and capability.

#yongkevthoughts

What About Me?

*"Well, there's a little boy waiting at the counter of the corner shop
He's been waiting down there, waiting half the day,
They never ever see him from the top
He gets pushed around, knocked to the ground,
He gets to his feet and he says...What about me? It isn't fair."

Provoke an innocent heart and you can make him change the world.

When it sounds too good to be true, it usually is false.   Or you have not got the whole picture.

Pay rises are approved readily and faster by Parliamentarians for themselves   - anywhere in the so called democracies   - than for the lowest paid sectors of the voting population.  

Elections held are to empower individual politicians to ideally work for the interests of the people, but in reality, most elected individuals tend to use their term of legislative authority to empower their own interests.

The worst addiction is to pay in small regular increments and not knowing the true costs, with a willing smile, a momentary pleasure and not realising the impact of the train wreck heading your way.

Every generation enjoys its own opportunities and fights its specific battles  - the rewards, labels and opiates are also unique.

The basic recipe of business is to spend less and charge more.   So is the ability to accumulate personal wealth.

We do not always harness our full potential, more often than not we utilise our full vulnerability.

We are truly primates, for other human beings treat us truly like monkeys.  We can jump high loops for peanuts.   Get us into troops to hang around and we do misbehave.  The excessive chatter on media echoes those swinging on trees.  We need to hug and have skirmishes.   We can be both cruel and kind to each other.   Are we at times not different from our cousins?

Some people sure have persistence, especially when there is easy money involved.

The simple concept of Yin and Yang is that we use the darkness to shine.

I would rather deal with an obvious rogue with a simple mind than with an apparent charmer with a scheming intent.

In any dealing, do pay attention to what they do not tell you, rather than what they want to emphasise.

A life of less expectations and more moderation removes the clutter from the instinctive human condition.

There is no point bringing in more through the back door than what you throw out from the front.

Make someone wait for too long and he or she can dismantle your comfort zone.

Always keep a positive fire of passion burning within yourself to light your personal  journey.

Do realise that there are people and processes, more involved in creating more electronic, audio and paper footpaths, to raise their own egos than in resolving a situation.

When in doubt, ask.  When in excess, scale down.  When being brushed off, soldier on!

Why is there a practice of bestowing titles?

*"But you just take more than you give
More than you give...
Take a step back and see the little people
They might be young,but they're the ones that make the big people big..."

Research efforts can be skewed to produce pre-determined outcomes, especially to favour those funding it.

There is a manufactured tablet for any imagined and real human condition.

Some so called smart phone apps tend to make fools of their human users  - and make them convenient and unknowing addictive fools as well.  

The undying and unchanged rule of commerce is to get paying customers to come back continue paying for it  - and convince them of urges and needs they did not know existed, or really require.

In the end, you have to save yourself, not from yourself, despite your self, but from others.

The funnier the advertisement, the hollower the product or service,

The first self check when dealing with the wolves at your front door is not to let others take advantage of your human instincts.

The basic tenet of on-going subscriptions is to ensure the ready flow of funds to the circus organiser.

Change what is not good for you or what is negative for you will change you.

A magical experience is to have an unstructured day of unplanned delights.

Humans tend to make more than a buck from holding cock fights and pitting one against another.

In the search for fairness, human beings have travelled long distances, created complexity, misused options and caused havoc.   The concept is ideal but the implementation can be challenging.

Why do we spend more time on the mundane than on the truly meaningful?

Some warped and cheeky guy will subvert the use of every human invention.

The outstanding characteristic of written agreements is to make them untenable when required.

Make yourself seen if the others pretend not to see you.

They make an interim, apparently caring fuss of you when you marry not for love, but with lenders, get into a contract, sign up for a long term business commitment or will yourself into a cult.   

Your existence and humanity can be reduced after that.

Knowing the cause is better than dancing around with the distracting symptoms.

Each of us really can do with much less than we think, but contemporary society makes us reckon otherwise.

In the end, it may not really matter.   Each of us is just a speck in an unexplainable and changing universe, but we can leave a legacy in our own special way, as unique as a finger print or as an inspiring memory in the hearts of others.

*"Nobody's changed, nobody's been saved
And I'm feeling cold and alone
I guess I'm lucky, I smile a lot
But sometimes I wish for more, than I've got..."
 

*Copyright of lyrics to Moving Pictures, What About Me