A trip to the past: 20 Ways We've Changed

[mogster]

Mother Jones, January 1996.

20 Ways We've Changed

In 1976, we elected our first born-again president and John Travolta was practicing the hustle. Now we have the Christian Coalition practicing politics and Travolta reborn as a symbol of irony. In the following pages, we look at 20 other big changes.
(...)
Number of merchant locations worldwide accepting the Visa card in 1976: 1.9 million

Number of merchant locations in 1995: 12 million

Number of multinational corporations in 1976: 10,373

Number of multinational corporations in 1990: 35,000
(...)
Big media got bigger

By 1993, 50 percent of the nation's newspapers, magazines, and television stations were owned by only 20 corporations. Today, these companies, like the newly merged Capital Cities/Disney group, are vertically integrated to control both the "hardware" (TV stations, publishing houses) and "software" (copyrights to movies, books, etc.). While media conglomerates have responded to the public's desire to know more about the powerful--a growing trend since Watergate--they have generally delivered exposés heavier on prurience than probity.

Percent of americans who had a "great deal" of confidence in the media in 1976: 18

Percent of Americans in 1995: 6

Number of evening newspapers in 1975: 1,436

Number of evening newspapers in 1994: 947
(...)

20 Ways We've Changed Part I 20 Ways We've Changed Part II

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It's interesting to read about this development - and one can only fathom how the (wrong) numbers have escalated since 1996.

[BrklynLib at work]

1. Thanks for posting. Very interesting and very scary