Independent Media

This week's assignment was to find ourselves an independent news source. After doing some researching, i have found a website (actually it is a blog, similar to this one) in which Gary Ater posts regularly about current issues and events. This website is a little more political than media driven, but nevertheless it is a site with good independent opinions that i feel are coherent and well researched.

Here is a bio on Gary Ater from the American Chronicle


For the past 30 years, Gary had been a Marketing and Sales Executive for high-tech companies located in Silicon Valley. Today, Gary is an opinion on-line author of political and commentary articles on national and world politics and events. His articles and comments are also occasionally published in local Silicon Valley news publications and they have been seen and heard on national TV and radio news-talk programs.

Gary is now regularly published as an Opinion Writer in a number of On-Line news magazines. Those publications include the American Chronicle, Los Angeles Chronicle, California Chronicle and the World Sentinel as well as available via Google News. Gary hopes you are encouraged by his articles to respond on-line with your own comments, ideas and perceptions.
He also offers his "left-of-center" views on his Internet BLOG: "Uncommon, Commonsense" at: http://commonsense-gater.blogspot.com/ , which is also listed as one of the best BLOG's on the web at:
"http://blogs.botw.org/society/politics"

I actually stumbled upon this website through a link from my stepfather's political website, Blue State Update. Both of these websites are fairly liberal but i would not say that either are radical or over the top in their views. I could see Ater's blog as an independent news source that i could visit regularly and find out his views on recent events. In comparison to a major news source such as Yahoo!.com, major websites usually have some sort of agenda. They are looking to make money through advertising, they are also looking to get the most amount of views, and also most likely are trying to keep endorsers happy. A site such as Uncommon, Common Sense has no agenda, there is no money to be made through this website and the author is not looking to please anyone. He is simply stating things as he sees them and discussing his opinions on issues.

In reference to this weeks readings, it was primarily about Marshal Mcluhan and his outlook on the media. He blew up in the 60's and was asked to give his input on what seemed like every radio and television show, but soon became old news and upon further reviews seemed to have some flaws in his theories. Looking back now and looking at how far our technology has come, many of Mcluhan's ideas seem to be very accurate and he seemed to have foresee many of the issues that are troubling us today in our media. He mentions a "perceptual numbing" that has happened to us in the day & age of video games and television that seemed to have happened because we were not prepared for what has come. The author makes several good points about how many of Mcluhan's ideas seem to be clear now more than ever and there are ways in which we can combat the overpowering media of today.