Media Quotes

“The truth is not in the commercial media because the truth is a dagger pointed at its heart, which is its pocketbook.”
― George Seldes, Facts and Fascism

“The ten billion animals that are killed every year for meat and the virulent consequences of contemporary animal agricultural practices remain conspicuously absent from public discourse. How often have you seen media exposés on the violent treatment of farm animals and the corrupt practices of carnistic industry? Compare this with the amount of coverage afforded fluctuating gas prices or Hollywood fashion blunders. Most of us are more outraged over having to pay five cents more for a gallon of gas than over the fact that billions of animals, millions of humans, and the entire ecosystem are systematically exploited by an industry that profits from such gratuitous violence. And most of us know more about what the stars wore to the Oscars than we do about the animals we eat.”
― Melanie Joy, Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism

“I would tell young journalists to be brave and go against the tide. When everyone else is relying on the internet, you should not; when nobody's walking, you should walk; when few people are reading profound books, you should read. ... rather than seeking a plusher life you should pursue some hardship. Eat simple food. When everyone's going for quick results, pursue things of lasting value. Don't follow the crowd; go in the opposite direction. If others are fast, be slow. -- Jin Yongquan”
― Judy Polumbaum, China Ink: The Changing Face of Chinese Journalism

“I think journalism anywhere should be based on social justice and impartiality, making contributions to society as well as taking responsibility in society. Whether you are capitalist or socialist or Marxist, journalists should have the same professional integrity. --Tan Hongkai”
― Judy Polumbaum, China Ink: The Changing Face of Chinese Journalism

“The schedules are crammed with shows urging us to travel further, drive faster, build bigger, buy more, yet none of them are deemed to offend the rules, which really means that they don't offend the interests of business or the pampered sensibilities of the Aga class. The media, driven by fear and advertising, are hopelessly biased towards the consumer economy and against the biosphere.”
― George Monbiot

“I used to think the most important thing for a reporter was to be where the news is and be the first to know. Now I feel a reporter should be able to effect change. Your reporting should move people and motivate people to change the world. Maybe this is too idealistic. Young people who want to be journalists must, first, study and, second, recognize that they should never be the heroes of the story. ..A journalist must be curious, and must be humble. --Zhou Yijun”
― Judy Polumbaum, China Ink: The Changing Face of Chinese Journalism

“There is a huge trapdoor waiting to open under anyone who is critical of so-called 'popular culture' or (to redefine this subject) anyone who is uneasy about the systematic, massified cretinization of the major media. If you denounce the excess coverage, you are yourself adding to the excess. If you show even a slight knowledge of the topic, you betray an interest in something that you wish to denounce as unimportant or irrelevant. Some writers try to have this both ways, by making their columns both 'relevant' and 'contemporary' while still manifesting their self-evident superiority. Thus—I paraphrase only slightly—'Even as we all obsess about Paris Hilton, the people of Darfur continue to die.' A pundit like (say) Bob Herbert would be utterly lost if he could not pull off such an apparently pleasing and brilliant 'irony.”
― Christopher Hitchens

“I think that of all the principles for journalism, the most important is to complicate simple things and simplify complicated things. At first sight, you may think something is simple, but it may conceal a great deal. However, facing a very complex thing, you should find out its essence. -Jin Yongquan”
― Judy Polumbaum, China Ink: The Changing Face of Chinese Journalism

“This is how it works now with the news: the story begins with a moral, then a narrative is fashioned to support it.”
― Walter Kirn

“[D]ie Leute [lesen] nichts, was sie nicht interessiert, und wenn sie etwas interessier[t], [sind] sie auch reif dafür.”
― Isabel Allende, La casa de los espíritus

“Was wir über unsere Gesellschaft, ja über die Welt, in der wir leben, wissen, wissen wir durch die Massenmedien”
― Niklas Luhmann, The Reality of the Mass Media

“Von der Pressefreiheit hängt praktisch jede andere Freiheit ab.”
― Salvador de Madariaga

“As the wall between advertising and content erodes, the aptitude required to understand the functions and design of media content becomes more complex.”
― Matthew P. McAllister

“Media work needs ideals. Maybe thirty years from now, after I retire, I'll see the media mature and make the transition from political party, interest group, and corporate to truly public. But over the next ten years, the encroachment of commercialism and worldliness will loom much larger than the democratization we imagine. -Jin Yongquan in China Ink”
― Judy Polumbaum

“By focusing exclusively on the events of the day, journalism all but severs the connection between time and eternity. It makes the world appear to be nothing but an endless jumble of events through which it is difficult, if not impossible, to discern anything beyond the relatively base motivations of lust, calculated self-interest, and the will to power. In short, journalism is not able to communicate wisdom.”
― Craig M. Gay, The Way of the (Modern) World: Or, Why It's Tempting to Live As If God Doesn't Exist

“The mass depiction of the modern woman as a "beauty" is a contradiction: Where modern women are growing, moving, and expressing their individuality, as the myth has it, "beauty" is by definition inert, timeless, and generic. That this hallucination is necessary and deliberate is evident in the way "beauty" so directly contradicts women's real situation.”
― Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth

“Jede Propaganda ist so gefährlich wie die Dummheit, auf die sie trifft.”
― Serdar Somuncu

“Mass amateurization of publishing makes mass amateurization of filtering a forced move.”
― Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations

“The low cost of aggregating information also allowed the formalization of sharing [...].”
― Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations

“Jeder ist immer erreichbar. Die ganze Welt beschleunigt sich, alles ist dringend, und wo alles dringend ist, ist nichts mehr dringend, und damit schlittern wir in eine Bedeutungslosigkeit hinein.”
― Joseph Weizenbaum

“Mogo living brings about true freedom. When you have the inner conviction to do the most good and the least harm, you are free to say no to media, social, and peer pressures. You are free from a nagging sense that your life does not have value or meaning. You are free to imagine and then create a truly successful (in the deepest meaning on the word) life. You are free to be at peace with yourself and all those whom your life touches.”
― Zoe Weil, Most Good, Least Harm: A Simple Principle for a Better World and Meaningful Life

“Dein Wissen hat keine Bedeutung, wenn niemand anderes weiß, dass du weißt.”
― Persius

“Die veröffentlichte Meinung [...] bildet nur einen kleinen Ausschnitt der öffentlichen Meinung ab.”
― Sascha Lobo, Wir nennen es Arbeit

“Das Web 2.0 bedeutet vor allem, dass die soziale Reichweite des Einzelnen größer ist als die Reichweite der eigenen Stimme.”
― Sascha Lobo, Wir nennen es Arbeit

“Einen guten Journalisten erkennt man daran, dass er sich nicht gemein macht mit einer Sache, auch nicht mit einer guten Sache; dass er überall dabei ist, aber nirgendwo dazugehört”
― Hanns Joachim Friedrichs

“Obwohl diese afrikanischen Militärbanden oft nicht größer oder mächtiger sind als die organisierten kriminellen Banden in Asien oder Osteuropa, wird über ihre Aktivitäten in den Medien - sogar in den westlichen Medien - unter der Rubrik Politik (Geschehen aus aller Welt) respektvoll berichtet, statt unter der Rubrik Verbrechen.”
― J.M. Coetzee, Tagebuch eines schlimmen Jahres

“The captains of England and Australia can barely exchange pleasantries these days without a body-language expert immediately declaiming on the angle of their handshakes.”
― Lawrence Booth

“Attempts to thwart or muzzle the media continued as well. At a conservative caucus meeting in Charlottetown in August 2007, journalists assembled in the lobby of the hotel, as they usually do at such gatherings, to talk to caucus members as they passed by. The [Prime Minister's Office] communications team, however, was not prepared to allow it. Taking their cue, or so it appeared, from a police state, they had the RCMP remove the reporters from the hotel.”
― Lawrence Martin, Harperland: The Politics Of Control

“I always seek out a law enforcement officer whenever I am being harassed during photography.”
― Steven Magee

“When people riot, there are generally much deeper reasons for the rioting than what is being reported by the corporate media.”
― Steven Magee