 This feature acts as a mass media survival guide for the informed citizen, describing the forces that shape our mainstream media system -- politics, advertising, government, and technology. These forces are then used to describe why some issues are covered (Tsunami, Martha Stuart, Paris Hilton, Street Crime), why some issues are not covered (gentrification, Free Trade Agreements, Third World Genocide), and why only the most homogenized content makes it through the Hollywood system. It then highlights what alternative forms of media are resisting these trends