

Saving the Internet for the People - Chris_Dollar
http://fourstory.org/features/story/saving-the-internet-for-the-people

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JTfor2032
A nice, well written article over-all. However I would like point out an
observation I made that nobody seems to pick up on. The “"big six" are all
American corporations that trying to monopolize American media industries,
which leads to false sense of freedom of speech among Americans. As you know
it will be hard to get this documentary produced and released to an American
audience that lies in the middle an information monopolization that I have
termed the "media bubble". All attempts to break the media bubble from within
the media bubble will encounter a devastating attack from the big six
corporations. So far no one has purposed a strategy that incorporates gaining
support and using resources from outside the bubble. A place such as Europe,
will allow the documentary to be very resistant from corporate attacks. While,
Europeans might not be as compelled, to donate their money towards a
documentary aimed at stopping a corporate takeover in America, Europe still
has plenty of characteristics, which the United States lacks, that would be
fruitful for making a documentary.

Ps. the chart, which is displayed in the article, cannot be zoomed in on and
is rather hard to understand. However it could just be the fact that I am not
very intelligent.

~~~
Chris_Dollar
JTfor2032: I agree with what you are saying. It is impossible to have
accountable governance when most people get their "news" from the television.
Television news in the US is unfortunately concentrated among six huge media
conglomerates.

The Internet as we know it, is unfortunately increasingly looking like it is
going the way of cable television. Especially in the wake of the NBC-Comcast
merger. If this progression continues, which it looks like it will... we will
continue to have more and more people in the U.S. keep up with the Anthony
Weiner and Royal Wedding Stories and less and less people know that the
Internet was shut off in Syria.

~~~
JTfor2032
Is anything similar happening in Europe?

~~~
braindemon
It's really hard to make comparisons with Europe, because their situation is
so different, and also within a very different cultural/historical context as
well. Firstly, they don't suffer from a hyper-consumerized, anti-intellectual
(shit throwing) Ape culture. So they're typically more immune from Corporate
Propoganda. Furthermore, they have state TV stations that are liberal and
honest. Our PBS was not allowed to do anything actually relevant or watched,
so our PBS was ghettoized to do documentaries about the History of the ice-
cream cone on the Eastern Seaboard during the late 19th Century.

~~~
Chris_Dollar
I agree it is very hard to compare the United States with Europe, but there
are many similarities and a ton of cross over in ownership. American media
firms that are competitors in the United States are many times joined at the
hip in Europe. There is a ton of collusion going on.

Ben Bagdikian, former Berkeley Journalism Dean and author of "Media Monopoly"
has spent 30 years painstakingly chronicling these relationships.

These media conglomerates are constantly merging and getting more powerful by
the day. They of course have their sights firmly on taking "control" of the
Internet (will there always be some dissension...sure on the fringes of
society) But those that think that the Internet will always have to be an open
medium are naive, remember everyone said the same thing about radio in the
1920s.

One more thing to think about when we compare Europe to the US. One must look
at French Pres. Nicolas Sarkozy and his attempts "civilize" the Internet which
is really a code for “regulations favorable to big business and the national
security state.

Full story here: [http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/05/france-
attem...](http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/05/france-attempts-to-
civilize-the-internet-internet-fights-back.ars)

The difference is the French citizens on the whole are more engaged (as
braindeomon points out) so they haven't put up with Sarkozy's proposals...
unlike the American populace who are largely uninformed on what's going on
politically (outside of Congressman Weiner's antics).

~~~
braindemon
I admit I painted an overly simplified, pre-1990's picture. Even the BBC has
famously had to adopt a more "American" model of advertisers allowing more
inroads by mega-corporations, and they've partnered with several American
corporations.

Sarkozy is notorious for his overt racist statements and policies, so he will
be no friend to democracy. I just feel sorry for his beautiful, talented wife,
because he really is a narcissist.

Right wing Berlusconi built his media empire on trash, titilating television
and is famous for his teenage lovers.

However, being ultra-/ far-right wing in Europe is famously understood to be
well to the left of Liberal Democrats. Our actual "moderate" right wing would
be illegal in Europe, since they had to deal with fascism, so won't
countenance anything that vicious.

------
AgentViper
@JT: People are getting off topic again but it sounds like your main concern
is getting the documentary released to a large audience. It would be much
easier to gain support from outside the bubble if the documentary was
finished. Giving the cause more credibility. It's a step by step process. The
main focus of the kickstarter page is to get the documentary finished. Just
finishing the documenary will bring us closer to ensuring a free and open
internet. Once the documentary is finished the main focus would then turn to
distribution to as many people as possible.

