The Media and the Bodiless Eye

I want to discuss the media, but through a different filter: as a medium. We don't tend to notice it, but the media isn't simply the guy standing at a prompter; it's the whole construct that allows us to see him. The media is like a bodiless eye: it gives us a seemingly un-mediated look into the lives of celebrities, the candidates, their views, their positions, their reactions and over-reactions, etc. In other words, we think that through the media we're getting the "true story," however much we criticize the media, however much we show that they are just exploiting people and controversies in order to get more ratings. We still look to the media as some sort of bringer of truth, an access to the "real" world.In my opinion, the media will be the ruin of this election. Media that is constantly portraying itself to be "fair and balanced." And not just FOX news. I'm tired of seeing battles being fought in the name of "universal ideals" such as unbiasedness, fairness, balance, etc. I'm not saying I don't believe in these ideals, because I really do. But these things aren't what one fights for, but the things that define the fight itself. They are the things history is made out of.

So this is what I'm fighting for:
1) that the media should stop being seen as a bodiless eye. It has a body and it works.
2) that the media should stop being seen as separate even from our personal lives. We are constantly producing and reproducing ideas that influence and are influenced by others. We are our own media.
3) that the media should stop being seen as producing the "true story." Every opinion is not a "side" to an argument, but a reformulation of the argument. We are constantly producing, that is to say, reformulating, combining, and editing, new stories, new myths, new fables.
4) that the media should stop being seen as merely subject to the people. We do not control the media any more than it controls us. But we can control the course our influence has, just as the media can control the course of its influence on us.

As much as this appears to be a manifesto, anyone who takes these claims seriously should (hopefully) see how complicated and unprecedentable this fight is. I'd be happy to hear anyone's thoughts on this.