American Media Idiot

Since we began reading Brooke Gladstone's The Influencing Machine, I have been thinking about what role the media plays in our everyday lives.  We are constantly surrounded by media, and most of it seems pretty harmless...but  I really do wonder what these images are doing to us?  Are they having a negative or positive influence on our lives?

While watching TV on a Saturday morning, I stumbled across a channel that was playing nothing but  music videos (!!!), just like in the old days!  Anyway, I was drinking my morning coffee and watching the videos, when "American Idiot" by Green Day came on.  I listened to the lyrics and this class immediately popped into my head.  Here is what the song says:

"American Idiot"

Don't wanna be an American idiot.
Don't want a nation under the new media
And can you hear the sound of hysteria?
The subliminal mind fuck America.

Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alien nation.
Where everything isn't meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We're not the ones who're meant to follow.
For that's enough to argue.

Well maybe I'm the faggot America.
I'm not a part of a redneck agenda.
Now everybody do the propaganda.
And sing along to the age of paranoia.

Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alien nation.
Where everything isn't meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We're not the ones who're meant to follow.
For that's enough to argue.

Don't want to be an American idiot.
One nation controlled by the media.
Information age of hysteria.
It's calling out to idiot America.
Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alien nation.
Where everything isn't meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We're not the ones who're meant to follow.
For that's enough to argue.
(From azlyrics.com)

I italicized the lyrics that I thought were relevant to our class.  If we believe what Green Day says, then the media is creating a hysteria/paranoia among us.  We sort of had this discussion in class, where we said that certain news stations will broadcast certain things one way and another new station will broadcast the same story, but it will be different.  

If we choose to believe everything we hear and see in/on the news, then it is very likely that we will be paranoid.  My personal opinion is that people don't care enough about the world they live in.  Instead of investigating for themselves, like cross-checking facts on different news sites or stations, people tend to listen to what a station is saying and believe that everything that station says is correct!  The news tends to be strictly negative, and it is difficult to find a positive story.  If you choose to believe what the news is saying, it is easy to be a negative and have little faith in the world.

I could see using this song in my classroom as an introduction to a discussion on the influence of the media.  I think it is important that the kids can sort through the information and decide for themselves what to believe.  Discussing the positives and negatives of the media is a good way to teach kids how to do this.  Does anyone else have any ideas on how you could generate a discussion on the effects of the media on our society?