Equity and Equality are two distinctly different ideas with a border that is sometimes easily obscured. Equity is the “fair” distribution of resources according to some objective or outside factor. For example, if two people were working the same job but one of them got more done, then this person would get paid more than the person who did less. In a perfect world, this is very similar to tipping your waiter or waitress at a restaurant. Equality is distributing resources in the same way to everyone. An example of this is something like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; everyone has these rights regardless of situation. The acknowledgement of the difference between the two (with relation to media) is particularly important. With the control of media environments usually being equitable with relation to the amount of money that a group/company/individual has, people that are not able to control much of the media have their voice drowned out. An equal media environment puts the same value to all ideas and so everyone gets to be heard. By pursuing policies that promote equity, not everyone is going to benefit. By striving for policies that promote equality, we all will reap the rewards. After all, is it right that someone is disadvantaged just because of their name, race, ethnicity, or social status? No it is not.
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