Having listened to the No Agenda podcast for a while, it has been interesting hearing them say over and over again that taking donations keeps them out of the hands of the major corporations that normally control the media.
I just read an interesting blog entry from Lou Covey’s State of the Media blog. It talks about how corporations are now fully sponsoring television shows, not hiding it, and really how this has been part of media since time immemorial.
I must admit, that I prefer the more overt advertising that comes up in the shows mentioned, than the sneaky methods of subverting mainstream media messaging. I guess there will always be corporations that will present entertainment as advertisement, we should be used to it. Hey, some of these shows could be quite good. But I would recommend when watching any television show or reading any newspaper (paper and online) think about the advertisements you see. Do they just want eyeballs? Or are there some other things going on behind the scenes?
Just a note that I do not think there are too many hidden messages…the main goal is still to entertain first–keep your ratings high so your show doesn’t get cancelled.
