What does ‘the Media’ have to do with chicken?

After a spate of protests world wide over an anti-moslem film, the arguments ran hot and fast at work, and at the local club.

Most people couldn’t understand how someone could protest so hard over a film they hadn’t seen, based entirely on what someone else told them about it.  Funny, because I see a similar reaction to a lot of other issues based on no more than eye catching and often misleading headlines, on much less controversial topics.

The consensus ended up deciding that ‘the media’ was at fault.  By publicising the film, and the reaction, it spread.  It’s an incredibly easy scapegoat, and takes the blame for an amazing number of things these days.  Much like the ‘tastes like chicken’ metaphor in the matrix.

Here’s my question to you: What IS ‘the Media’.

Most common answer: TV and newspapers.

What about blogs, discussion forums, social media?

Blaming the people who controlled our opinions when we were limited to only a few channels of TV, and only a few publications, was one thing, but what about now?  We’re no longer limited in what sources we access to form our opinions.  We can’t blame someone else for shaping our thoughts anymore.  We control what we see, read and take in.

Put bluntly, if we put anything up ourselves online, even just a twitter or facebook account, we are no longer passive consumers of what the media feeds us.  We ARE the media.

…are you willing to take responsibility (and blame) for what YOU post online?