Media. It surrounds us. We live our lives in it and through it. We structure our lives around it.

But it wasn't always this way.

So how did we get here?

And where is the media technology that increasingly governs our lives taking us. This is the story of The Media Matrix. So, And you're all. At the dawn of the 21st century, if you saw anything, read anything, listen to anything.

It was more likely than not placed in front of you by one of the handful of companies

that controlled the major television and radio networks, newspaper syndicates, film studios,

and music companies. These companies didn't control what people thought.

It was more subtle than that.

These companies controlled what people thought about.

We all knew the daily news from the newspapers.

We all heard the latest Billboard chart-topper.

We all saw the latest episode of Must-C-TV.

We all knew about the latest Hollywood blockbuster.

Even if we managed to avoid these media ourselves,

we knew them anyway from cultural osmosis.

Yes, by the year 2000, we had arrived at the pinnacle of mediated reality.

The media oligopoly's control of society was complete

and nothing could ever come along to change it.

And then, something did.

We're riding on the internet, cyberspace, set free.

Hello virtual reality.

Interactive appetite, searching for a website,

...