The Yes Men Fix the World

In "The Yes Men Fix the World," their critique of media is that the government and large corporations control everything that we are told. Their critique is that the government is not doing their job in terms of thinking about the people and what is best for them. Their critique also shows that the free market is not regulated the way that it should be and the people are being lied to and not given any hopes for better lives. Their pranks work as an analysis that breaks down and explains the workings of the media because they are visions of what the media should be doing and they are giving them the reactions that they would get from the people that have been waiting for years to hear that. Their pranks serve as a model of what the companies should be doing when it comes to taking responsibility for their actions even if they did not have very good outcomes. One of the terms that they use and we have learned in class is “false consciousness”. They show us that what we think the free market does can be very different from what they have actually been doing for years now.