Who decides what is news? That’s been oft discussed in my communication classes over the last couple of semesters. And, over and over, we students have given what we’ve been told is the correct answer for our entire lives: “they.” Over and over we’re told that the major media decide what will be reported on. On what will become a major focus. On what we’ll complain about in print, video, and online. Traditional wisdom states that big business decides what gets talked about.

Reality, however, is something else entirely. While yes, technically, news corporations do control the news content and the dominant conversation of culture (Cultural Studies theory by Stuart Hall), we help control it.

See, while a journalist has a personal bias, they also have the bias of money. That newspaper you hold in your hands, that network newscast you watch, and that blog you read are all paid for, fundamentally, by advertising. Advertising pays the journalist, the photographer, the producer, the writer, and the bosses. Money drives the news—but not in the way you might think. Realistically, corporations do not try to manipulate the news through huge payoffs, nor will most journalists accept such bribes. (Not to say it doesn’t happen, but it’s not often.) Many journalists will not bow to the wishes of advertisers.

Advertisers want to reach the most people they can. They’ll pay more money to reach more people. So if a news organization wants to make more money, they need more eyeballs looking at their content. How do you get more eyeballs looking at your content? Have content those eyeballs want to look at. The news that is reported is reported because we the viewers have told the news organizations to report more news like that by virtue of our viewing consent.

So while we can spend hours upon hours whining, complaining, writing letters, and writing Facebook statuses, the reality is that none of it matters. If we’re going to continue consuming the content, all of our complaining does not matter. If you don’t want to hear Glenn Beck ever again, stop talking about/listening to/watching him. If you want the news to stop talking about a topic, stop reading the stories about it.

We don’t change things by complaining. We change things by doing. It’s the same across every part of life. I’ll admit, I’m guilty of this many times. I like to complain. It’s human nature. But let’s commit together to changing things. Change your world with actions, not words.