The Information Age Contradiction

My mental gears was just aroused by a post from Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB in Facebook. There is this recent hype about Christopher Lao and his blunder on national TV and it generated mixed reactions, most are hateful. Informed media consumers would argue against media (specifically, news) responsibility.

It is a fact that most of what we found in mass media is not free. Most of it is laced with advertising, each priced according to its broadcast and time-length. Think about it, even information may not be free anymore. You might have free TV but you'll have to subject yourself to a series of 60 second advertisements in order to get your fill. So it is with news. Newspapers admit that the 3/4 of the paper is advertisements for them to float.

This raises a lot of concerns. With all the tie-ups with companies and advertisers, is there still such a thing as unbiased, objective, and true information? Who is in charge of all these flow of information? Is it really a harmonic chaos of information that we are but helpless consumers who drown in the oceans of information?

Information Age is supposed to bring more freedom to man. Information should not enslave man.