This week we embark on a fairly important chapter, media economics. While there was a bit of economic discussion in chapter 1, the rubber meets the road in chapter three. Read the chapter and then take a look at the PowerPoint I prepared. Be forewarned, the PowerPoint for this chapter is only loosely linked to the text, and represents the kind of get-on-my-soapbox rant I occasionally unload on my face-to-face classrooms.
I'd apologize, but I actually think this stuff is really important. Good newspapers (or TV or radio or online) that do real journalism are really a key part of maintaining a healthy, thriving nation. But there isn't much good journalism left. Instead we're left with a lot of nonsense such as this:
Media ignores the news to focus on manufactured conflict.
Another sad commentary on the state of American media. The Washington press corps, the elite of the journalistic elite, lobbing 23 questions about a faux controversy about when the president would speak, and only nine about what he intended to speak about. Whether you love the president, or hate him, or if you fall somewhere in between, I think you'd all agree that since he wanted to talk about his proposal to create jobs, while we are in the midst of the worst unemployment crisis since the Great Depression, that the substance of his speech should matter to these knuckleheads.
I suspect contemporary media economics has something to do with this dumbing down of our discourse (to the degree that we allow it to continue, we share some blame). That's my theory at least. Let me know if you agree, or disagree. I will post additional readings on Media economics throughout the week.
Let me hear from you by Wednesday.
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I agree that it is very frustrating that the news media has completely turned away from true journalism and has instead is publishing watered down bias news. The lack of facts in our everyday news has truly dumbed down the American people, and has affected the core principals of society, since nobody is being taught the facts. Finding true substance journalism is incredibly difficult. The fact that the media is more concerned about when the president will speak, rather than what he will speak about is appalling; it is no wonder why so many people are making such poor voting decisions. I certainly hope that in the future people demand actual journalism form the media instead of this insignificant rubage. Unfortunately I do not foresee this happening in the near future. Our news media is more concerned about pleasing lobbyist than educating the American people on facts.
ReplyDeleteI agree that profits and funding seem to be the most important factor in media today is not reporting truth instead its primary focus is its profits and investors that generate revenue by advertising . I feel like this focus has been a degradation of media from a place that was once respected and well researched.
ReplyDeleteJournalists and news companies are willing to compromise their integrity and credibility to generate more revenue for its investors. This is a detriment for our society that is in need of clear messages about what is happening in the world around us. In order to be able to make intelligent and well thought out decisions in everyday life. Decisions, like who to vote for, require that we have unbiased information about all candidates running for an election. Because news coverage has deviated from the facts and the truth it leaves people with an unclear foundation for their beliefs and creates a mentality of not being aware of what is happening. It is my hope that media will become the tool it was meant to be to an outlet to relay credible information to a large population of people. So we will then have the resources to make more informed decisions. Unfortunately this society is too motivated by personal interest and profits and I don’t think this will happen anytime soon.
I agree I too think this is a very important issue. The media is so focused on the negative aspects of certain topics that should be treated much more serious. Things such as this get blow completely out of proportion way to easily. Rather than focusing their time and effort on developing a informative story on what the president intends to speak about, they spend their time zeroing in on the their minor schedule misunderstanding. How often do you hear positive news about politics? If newscasters and reporters would focus more on the underlined facts of certain issues more knowledge could be spread out to the American people. The fact of the matter is T.V networks don't care what their audiences are absorbing, as long as it is keeping people interested and their investors happy. Unfortunately I don't see any changes in the media anytime soon. People are simply too concerned with themselves.
ReplyDeleteI do not find the poor quality of these so-called "news outlets" surprising. I see the problem as something like this:
ReplyDelete1. There is a limited amount of worthwhile news.
2. As news media become cheaper to produce and distribute, quantity of production increases.
3. When production and distribution exceed the amount of actual worthwhile material, material must be manufactured or exhausted. Therefore, the same amount of worthwhile news is produced, but increasing amounts of filler news are also produced, decreasing the average quality of the news as a whole.
I only rarely meet people who actually believe the outlets Jon Stewart criticizes produce worthwhile material.
As funny as this clip was it's message left me frustrated and rolling my eyes. As the focus of today's media turns from informative to what Kim Kardashian has to say about this and that I find myself watching less and less. The huge focus on the scheduling of the presidents speech and the amount of time spent talking about it is mind boggling. How can we possibly expect today's youth to make informative decisions on politics or to even take it seriously when media coverage can't even focus on real issues. I will admit I enjoy my fluff pieces and need an uplifting story about Lassie rescuing Timmy from the well now and then but this media is not meant as a filler or to generate revenue. Every story has its place, lets leave schedule mishaps and Michelle Obama's clothing choices to the entertainment news please.
ReplyDeleteSpeechgate? C'mon people! Let's remove our heads from the sand and work together to resolve this. First things first, let's work together, crazy concept, and rebuild our economy. This is the main reason I watch The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. I enjoy watching someone humorous actually showing America how backwards we are. What's more important to America: Beyonce's baby or our national debt being outrageous. Unfortunately, we all know the answer to that.
ReplyDeleteAs Jon Stewart pointed out, style stumps substance. It is truly unfortunate to see what the media chooses to cover, on account that is what drives a large part of our culture... It is independent thinkers that will have to push change in this area though- it seems as though there are too many followers rather than leaders. It is shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report that will gain interest towards news by using a layer of humor. I find that many think the news is boring, and this will push channels to accumulate more interesting stories inorder to increase their view count. So this eluminates the fact that WE push and shape the media to a large degree- which makes me sad to think as I reflect on media culture today.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the absurdity of these types of events. Unfortunately they are all too common. Our media has become so indoctrinated with the concept of appealing to mass markets that they are more concerned with the sideshow circus than current events. It's almost like our news broadcasts have become a sensationalism show. The sad thing is this is an example of something that seems to happen all the time. Take for instance the Super Bowl. Will it be remembered for the great game it was, or the terrible commercials and Gisele's outburst? But who is really to blame? The media that runs the circus, or the audience that is drawn to it?
ReplyDeleteAs a high-schooler and therefore part of today's youth, I too agree that many of the media's messages are obscured by what they think we want to hear. I don't feel like I get enough information from watching the news as I should; and most of the time it's very bias and not about anything I care about or am interested in. Like in the video posted, I find it absurd that they gave so much media time to the fact that Obama changed his speech date. I would much rather here about the actual content of it and how it affects my country and me. Corporations like Fox News shouldn't censor their content so much for the fear of upsetting the American population. That's what media is for, isn't it? To uproot controversy and maybe hurt people's feelings a little bit?
ReplyDelete