A call for a different acronym to dis the corporate media with: COMA = Corporate Media.
May we all please begin saying, "COMA," not, "MSM"? Thanks.
COMA = "corporate media."
MSM = "men who have sex with men."
Also, in the blogosphere these last few years, "mainstream media."
The public health folks, the social science academics, the epidemiologists, the AIDS movement, and, of course, the men who have sex with men had "MSM" first.
There’s a good reason for this: In the early days of AIDS (and yet somehow, in the current moment of AIDS as well), scare-mongering and ignorance treated HIV infection as a function of identity. The dual dangers were that those who openly declared an LGBTQ identity had to face a new disease-phobia on top of homophobia, and that those who could not, or chose not to, declare such an identity often believed they need not seek testing or treatment. MSM, WSM, WSW, etc. became behavior descriptors, not identity labels.
Also, "MSM" is a bad label for the media. Calling the media "mainstream" is a complaint about their perspective or position in relation to us in the blogosphere. It’s based in a vague metaphor: What’s the stream?
"Corporate media" is concrete. Media organizations are corporations. They’re in business to make money — and they make a lot. They are closer to other corporate interests than they are to us.
Besides, "COMA" is fun to say.
OK by me. From now on COMA it is. BTW, long O sound??
Long “Oh”? Are you kidding? Of COURSE! COMA – like asleep, like injury-induced vegatative state. Not comma, like that thing i put there after the word comma.
No offense meant. I’m simply an old fart trying to stay up with the young folks here at booman. Thanks for clarifying the obvious to me.
OK, I’ll trade you COMA for “global HEATING”, OK?
“Warming” sounds all cozy and shit. Global HEATING is the real problem, as nothing about it is cozy.
Maybe it’s been a long day, but this is the 1st thing to make me LOL since something the dog did around 6:30 a.m. I’m on board w/ “Global Heating.” The other day i also heard somebody’s rant about “Climate Chaos” as the preferred term.
I’m glad it made for a light moment for you. We all need to enjoy the battles we engage in, at least for a moment or two from time to time.
I’m down with “Climate Chaos”, too, but I’ve been pushing “Global HEATING” for at least a year now, to limited success. It’s really interesting to me that there have been times in my life when I have tried to start a new meme and given up – only later, sometimes many years later, to find that my words have gained a life. Who knows if I really started it or whether it was discovered independently and gained a life of its own from alternate sources? I sure don’t, but I do like to think that I prepared the way, at least in some small part, for the eventual success of an idea.
Kudos to you for trying, and may your attempt gain a life of its own…