Corporate Control of the Media Defines Our Culture :: Argumentative Persuasive Topics

Corporate Control of the Media Defines Our Culture Viacom is on the warpath. They got your MTV, and Blockbuster, and even Paramount pictures. Forrest Gump is on the payroll. Any rock band or rap artist who wants to be anything is too. They own your music and your movies and a lot of the television you watch, and pretty soon theyll probably own in all the books you read. They dont just supply the movies or music, either. First they proclaim you what youre going to like- -they lifted Forrest Gump all the way to an Oscar--and then they give it to you. And, if theyre marketing is as good as it usually is, youre probably going to like it. They hold your tastes. They rule your culture. Viacom is everywhere. Viacom sucks. Viacom, with billions of dollars in their infantry, is conquering culture. Theyre not the only corporate general, though, leading the charge. Time/Warner has a formidable platoon, buying up magazines and chain stores and TV stations. Steven Spielberg, David Geffen, and Jeffrey Katzenberg, all with so much money they bottomt even spend it, just formed a multi-billion dollar media conglomerate called DreamWorks SKG. They want movies and music and TV and computers and anything else that entertains us. They want it all, and IBM and Microsoft and MCA records, among others round out the all-star corporate squad, ar looking to get in on the deal. The war for cultural dominance is on, with billions and even trillions of dollars on the line. Everyone stand aside. The big guys are here to fight, and fight hard. Culture is a multi-billion dollar industry. Movies, computers, books, CDs, theme parks--theyre what the Statesns spend their money on. Everyone has seen Jurassic Park. Everyone has heard Michael Jackson. Entertainment, and the culture it defines, is something we all share, something that unifies the American, and even world, experience. Little else can or does. Movies, music, TV especially have occasion the cultural staples of our time. A numbe r one song can make you a millionaire, and some movies become so popular that literally everyone has seen them. Entertainment defines the American scene. It is our culture. It is, then, inevitably a part of everyones life, if not only through your pocketbook. This, then, is what drives the battle to conquer culture--your money. American culture--what America reads, listens to, and watches--grows larger and larger every year, expanding like the Blob(a cultural icon) not only across the country but also across the world.