William Gibson made the point in the novel Neuromancer that being in cyberspace is like “being wrapped in media” – cyberspace as a “consensual hallucination”. Much the same can be said of television and other mass media which is pretty scary if your only window on the world is what’s piped down your TV screen.
Here are a few links on the nature of reporting in the current Iraq war situation. Don’t read them uncritically for all media producers have a bias of some sort or another. Still they make interesting reading. Even in NZ it pays to check out the different news sources, both locally and globally, to get a broader picture.
Matt 10:16 “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.” seems somewhat appropriate here in our understanding of the media.