Cutting-Edge Media Theory, Analysis, and Application for the Anti-Social Media Age

February 28, 2019 admin 15 comments

(FOR THE VERSION WITH COMPLETE TEXT OF LINKEDIN ARTICLES FOR ARCHIVAL PURPOSES: https://americasmansman.wordpress.com/2019/09/16/cutting-edge-theory-analysis-and-application-for-the-anti-social-media-age-backup/ )

This page is shadow-banned on LinkedIn and Google. You won’t be able to find it on Google no matter how hard you try – well, they may unblock it now because of this page. But nobody can find it because of the shadow-ban. Originally published on LinkedIn JULY 19, 2017. Leftist College Professor
Siva Vaidhyanathan would later attempt to warp the observations I made in this original book into a diatribe against conservatives in a book he published and unimaginatively “borrowed” the title of this article, “Anti-Social Media.” He published his borderline-plagiarism under that title May 15, 2018, and nobody’s buying it because they see straight through its stupidity. It’s heavily discounted but it’s worth less than the paper it’s printed on.

Some Highlights of Peter Vadala’s original concepts and stories can be found here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/stay-ahead-clinton-samsung-hollywood-peter-vadala

Fellow Authors: Please remember to correctly attribute quotes and original theses from your favorite Peter Vadala articles. Thanks. Feel free to reach out to Peter via LinkedIn.

In this series of musings and articles, you’ll learn things that the media doesn’t know about themselves.

It was once common knowledge that the performers on television, even news performers, were, just like most stage performers, those from the fringes of society and those from less-than-stable upbringings who have nothing better to do than dress up like they’re going to a cocktail party at 5a.m. in the morning, as former ABC Religion Reporter Peggy Wehmeyer put it to an audience of mostly liberal Gordon College students in 2005. That’s the rule, anyway; there are notable exceptions. But the checkered personalities of the talking heads are just the tip of the iceberg.

NYU professor and Media Theorist Neil Postman, who left us in 2003, though not a believer, wrote a profound explanation of the parable that even the secular critics respect, which we know as Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.

It’s not that the journalists wake up every morning determined to do something really evil; but neither does the ISIS brand of terrorist, or the World Trade Center bombers. And as Christians, we don’t wish ill upon the journalists; but you wouldn’t appoint them as pastors of your church either. And essentially, they’ve usurped your pastor’s moral authority.

Historian David Barton recounts that in the early days of the best nation on earth (with perhaps the exception of Israel, God’s historic chosen people), you found out about issues of the day from your pastor at church. And why not? Your pastor is a man that you actually know personally, and he is versed in the moral law and the salvation of Christ that ought to motivate decision making. On that basis, he used his theological knowledge and pastoral experience, and based on his proven character, told his congregation what God told him to say.

But a new pastor has emerged with the advent of the newspaper, which Postman asserted was not an advancement of literature, but rather, a product of telegraph technology. You’ll want to read Postman’s complete epistle, but key to us here is the fact that rather than basing his authority on his good character and standing in the community, the television talking head derives his place in your life based on his ability to manipulate a very expensive set of technological toys, serving both technical and advertising interests.

The articles that follow are a guide for both pastors and all Bible-believing Christians alike to help understand not just the psyche of the media talking head and new iterations of electronic news delivery; but also the systems in place – and their built-in bias, which makes it an unreliable and anti-Christian force which must be strongly dealt with.

I maintain, as President Donald Trump has, that the American media is the enemy of the people, I would add poisoning the well of American faith and wisdom, which is the source of all the blessings we have.

I assure you that these articles have only stirred controversy because of how orthodox they are, however, new iterations (virtual reality, smart phones) of the same old threats (salacious TV, records, and film), though unrecognized as such, call for a new explanation suitable for their specific effects. In other words, Neil Postman wrote his landmark epistle, Amusing Ourselves to Death, the year I was born, 1985, critiquing television specifically. Today, 95% or more of the population carries around portable televisions; highly interactive portable televisions, making them infinitely more potent than the old set-top box. But, of course, we don’t call them portable televisions; thanks to Steve Jobs, we call them phones. Also, Neil Postman was not a person of faith, to my understanding, so his book can perhaps be appreciated better by pastors when interpreted within the light of our faith. What makes it notable to the Christian is Neil Postman’s respect for God’s chosen medium of Salvation, incarnate in His Son – the Word. Jesus was and is not “The Television of God.” I’d maintain that we are naturally created beings, made in God’s image, and that electronic media is a medium which unnaturally disrupts our natural minds, appropriating what people of faith call “natural revelation,” and the Word itself.

Now that our vocabularies have shrunken about 60% since the 1960s (source unavailable), and terrorism reigns in both public cities and schools alike, and nobody is allowed to read the Bible in public schools, or pray – though our president is working diligently to restore such constitutional freedoms – it’s clear that something has got to be done about the media. And this is, without apology, a warning that things shall only progress for the worst if Google has its way.

In case you’re wondering, since I do make claims of orthodoxy, here are just a handful of the authorities I rely upon for my media theory:

The Holy Scriptures (The Bible), by God, generally as interpreted from a pre-media perspective, particularly in regard to the contemporary liberal theology regarding sexuality.
Amusing Ourselves To Death by Neil Postman
How Now Shall We Live by Chuck Colson
Story by Robert McKee
Wild At Heart by John Eldridge
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Christian Reflections, Mere Christianity, and The Great Divorce by Clive Staples Lewis.
The Collective Media Performances of Hilary Hinton “Zig” Ziglar
The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel
Theology of the Body by Pope John Paul II
The writings and work of MassResistance (not a Christian Organization)
My own personal experiences as a small-market radio reporter and at a top-ten-market radio newsroom
My own personal experiences as a small-market radio reporter, as a Christian and secular radio producer, and at a top-ten-market radio newsroom
The Christian-leaning Teachings of Franciscan University, including the experience of managing the student radio station there and producing the feature-length, original College Musical
Marshall McLuhan’s writings

Some of the articles you’ll find here are more formally organized; I’ve been trying to keep my writings more short and focused lately. Others are more stream-of-consciousness ramblings. And if you need clarification, or would like to request that a certain topic of interest to you is more formally written, please let me know. In any event, I am accepting your feedback to help regarding both clarity and focus, as I’m just a servant of God trying to communicate as clearly as possible. If there’s anything I can do to make this guide more useful to you, please let me know.

Yours in Christ,

Peter Vadala

How Trump Won the 2016 American Presidential Election

https://americasmansman.wordpress.com/2019/07/14/how-trump-won/

Ten Books For Today’s Man’s Man

https://americasmansman.wordpress.com/2019/01/09/10-books-for-todays-mans-man/

“Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying”: The Origins of Retirement And A Rebuttal To The Atlantic’s Prepare To Die Strategy
https://americasmansman.wordpress.com/2019/07/09/the-atlantic-has-got-career-de-escalation-wrong/

The Seriously Manly Business Of Fairy Tales: Why Three Of America’s Most Influential Manly Men Say Fairy Tales Matter

https://americasmansman.wordpress.com/2019/07/06/the-manly-business-of-fairy-tales/

A Kingdom Divided: Why Disney’s Merger With ABC has Proven Disastrous

https://americasmansman.wordpress.com/2019/07/05/summer-news-slump-a-kingdom-divided/

The Associated Press Threat, and Propaganda Phraseology

Netflix, Hollywood To Teen Girls: “13 Reasons Why” You Should Kill Yourself

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/netflix-hollywood-teen-girls-13-reasons-why-you-should-peter-vadala

Evidence Of Fox News’ Pro-Homosexual, Anti-Christian Bias

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/black-activist-dont-compare-civil-rights-climate-change-peter-vadala

How the Associated Press Stylebook Distorts Truth Through Phraseologyhttps://www.linkedin.com/pulse/rachel-alexander-shares-peter-vadala-observation-fox-news-vadala

A press release in which Rachel Alexander of “The Hill” and “The Stream” borrows my finding about AP Stylebook Bias:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/full-text-crc-public-relations-release-peter-vadala

“Execution-style” Attacks by the “Drive-by” Mainstream Media

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/execution-style-attacks-drive-by-msm-part-series-american-vadala

To Anti-American Journalists: ISIS does not INSPIRE anything. A look at how Mainstream Journalism’s language reveals deep-seated hatred of America

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/anti-american-journalists-isis-does-inspire-anything-look-vadala

“Rip and Read”: Understanding The Media Industry

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/rip-read-understanding-media-industry-peter-vadala

A Running List: Anti-Social Media’s Self-Serving Bias

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/running-list-anti-social-medias-self-serving-bias-peter-vadala

Media v. Reality

VICE is the Archetypal Terrorist Media Outlet

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/vice-media-archetypal-terrorist-outlet-peter-vadala

CBS’s War On Christmas Carols

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/defense-christmas-carols-peter-vadala

Media-Induced Psychosis

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/media-induced-psychosis-electronic-appropriation-human-peter-vadala

Dems’ Dichotomy Between Winning And Purity Started On MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Ended With Howard Dean back on MSNBC

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dems-dichotomy-between-winning-purity-started-msnbcs-morning-vadala

Mickey On The Cross: Disneyfied Christianity

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dr-zach-ws-mickey-crss-peter-vadala

When You Help Your Audience, They’ll Thank You

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/when-you-help-your-audience-theyll-thank-peter-vadala

Media Values 101: Do you believe in Real American Values or Fake, Media Values?

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/do-you-believe-real-american-values-media-peter-vadala

Analysis: Each New Medium Gets More Truthful Towards End Of Life Cycle

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/analysis-each-new-medium-gets-more-truthful-end-life-cycle-vadala

How To “Make An Impact”

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-make-impact-peter-vadala

How Fox News Did It (Rose to #1 In TV News)

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/going-big-story-how-fox-news-did-peter-vadala

Overcoming The Millennialitis Baby Boomers Gave Us

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/overcoming-millennialitis-baby-boomers-gave-us-which-media-vadala

Don’t Negotiate With Media

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dont-negotiate-media-peter-vadala

A Running List: Anti-Social Media’s Self-Serving Bias

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/constitutional-amendment-needed-check-fourth-estate-peter-vadala

Media Multiculturalism: Why The Media Hates Christians

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/media-multiculturalism-why-hates-christians-peter-vadala

The Medium Is The Message. Here’s The Message.

https://americasmansman.wordpress.com/2019/03/02/the-medium-is-the-message-heres-the-message/

When Television Turns Church into Slothful, Homosexual Gathering Places

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/when-television-turns-church-slothful-homosexual-gathering-vadala

I Refuse To Be Your Fake News

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/i-refuse-your-fake-news-peter-vadala

The Myth of “Cultural Appropriation” Explained

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/myth-cultural-appropriation-explained-peter-vadala

US Media’s Partnership With Terror

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/us-medias-partnership-terror-peter-vadala

The Infotainment Media Should Be Intimidated

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/infotainment-media-should-intimidated-peter-vadala

A Call For Responsible Reporting Of Violence In The News Industry

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/call-responsible-reporting-violence-news-industry-peter-vadala

Will Truth Solve Legacy News Media’s Existential Crisis?

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/truth-solve-legacy-news-medias-existential-crisis-peter-vadala

Microsoft-LinkedIn Silences Insurance Agent

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/microsoft-linkedin-silences-insurance-agent-peter-vadala

Maine Governor LePage Calls Out Media Shenanigans

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/maine-gov-lepage-calls-out-media-shenanigans-peter-vadala

My Christian Storytelling Agenda: The Myth Of Unbiased Storytelling

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/my-christian-storytelling-agenda-myth-unbiased-peter-vadala

Tune In Or Else: Severe Media Overload

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/tune-else-severe-media-overload-peter-vadala

Entertainment Tragedy: As you watch the “latest” “horrific tragedy” “unfold”

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/you-watch-latest-horrific-tragedy-unfold-peter-vadala

How Television Kills Cops

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-television-kills-cops-peter-vadala

How Television Destroys Manhood, Womanhood, and Marriage

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-television-destroys-manhood-womanhood-marriage-peter-vadala

Are The Clouds Lifting?

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/clouds-lifting-peter-vadala

“On Homophobia”

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/homophobia-peter-vadala

Fast Company Notes Technological Determinism’s Bent On Election Coverage

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/fast-company-notes-technological-determinisms-bent-election-vadala

The Phenomenon Of Media Death Threats (A Commentary On)

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/phenomenon-media-death-threats-commentary-peter-vadala

New Disney Channel Show To Kids: Don’t Play Outside. Be The Exhibitionist With Electronic Media Instead.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/new-disney-channel-show-kids-dont-play-outside-media-instead-vadala

Media’s Ending America?

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/end-america-peter-vadala

News Meta-Theory: Why Journalists Lie

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/news-theory-why-journalists-lie-peter-vadala

Media Meta-Theory: Why is the Liberal Media Liberal?

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/whys-liberal-media-peter-vadala

Wanted: Anchorman/Anchorette. An Honest Job Description

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/wanted-anchormananchorette-honest-job-description-peter-vadala

How Television Makes Amerika Dumberer An Less Produktiv

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-television-makes-you-loser-peter-vadala

Nickelodeon’s Creepy Classrooms

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/nickelodeons-creepy-classrooms-peter-vadala

On “Christian Film” (And Showstopping Pastors)

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/honest-musings-christian-films-peter-vadala

The Journalism Profession’s Marketing Problem

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/journalism-professions-marketing-problem-peter-vadala

The Church’s Marketing Problem

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/churchs-marketing-problem-peter-vadala

The Motive Of The San Bernardino Attack

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/motive-peter-vadala

Also of interest (OUTSIDE SOURCE), re. Truth v. Media:

The Medium is the Messiah: McLuhan’s Religion and its Relationship to His Media Theory

“Christian Hollywood”

Apologetics: The PROSAIC Cult Infiltrating Today’s “Christian Hollywood”

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/prosaic-cult-infiltrating-todays-christian-hollywood-peter-vadala

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-faith-based-movie-producers-wont-touch-my-peter-vadala

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/christian-movie-industry-denial-peter-vadala

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/prediction-same-kind-different-me-flop-race-baiting-peter-vadala

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/exceptional-story-doctor-opportunity-peter-vadala

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-im-looking-story-consultant-peter-vadala

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-makes-script-great-peter-vadala

The Emerging Anti-Social Media/Web X.0 Threat

Google ‘s James Damore Speaks Out – At The Cost Of His Job

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/jerry-maguire-google-memo-peter-vadala

How Google Censors Your Conservative, Christian Web Results (And Anything Else Which Cramps Its Insidious Marketing Goals)

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/case-how-google-censors-your-conservative-christian-web-peter-vadala

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/zenith-head-development-goodwin-samsung-blowing-whistle-peter-vadala

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/search-page-killed-front-star-how-web-digital-what-do-peter-vadala

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/banned-ted-talk-reveals-god-peter-vadala

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/google-returning-profanity-christian-rock-searches-peter-vadala

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/codeway-hell-peter-vadala

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/stub-panera-skinner-box-peter-vadala

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/reach-out-click-someone-internet-removing-all-effort-peter-vadala

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-technology-destroying-mans-capacity-art-peter-vadala

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/google-alphabet-new-catholicism-peter-vadala

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/irony-technological-achievement-peter-vadala

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/religion-ted-peter-vadala

Stories And Opinions You’ll Never Hear Because Of Baked-In Media Bias, Resulting From Technology Usurping the “Moral Judgement” or “News Judgement” Role From People

Rift Raft

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/rift-raft-truthful-news-can-get-homey-sometimes-ill-take-peter-vadala

The Irony Of Technological Advancement

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/irony-technological-achievement-peter-vadala

The White House Should Establish A Media Literacy Initiative

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/white-house-should-establish-media-literacy-peter-vadala

Don’t Celebrate Independence Day And Do This…

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dont-celebrate-independence-day-peter-vadala

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/faith-christ-prevents-terrorism-peter-vadala

This Man’s Against Fake Women

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/mans-against-fake-women-peter-vadala

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/macro-us-socio-political-prediction-next-40-years-peter-vadala