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.
