All My Random Thoughts in One Colorful Place
Private: Blogging Killed The Media Star
I had originally argued against Mike’s point that Bloggers should be considered journalists. I felt as though we need some kind of “real” news. News that you can trust. News that you can be confident is correct when you write a paper. However, I can see why college stresses the fact that you need to be a “Critical Thinker.” You need to double check what the TV is spoon feeding your brain, what the presenter is saying, and what you’re reading. You need to question before you believe.
Stating this, I have read an entry in a blog that made me a little sick. It simply furthers my point that you need to question whether or not news, which is purporting to be fact, is really true at all. That entry mentions a “Nobel Nominee” named Dr. Hammesfahr who believes Terri Schiavo is curable, moreover that he can cure her. If you read the article, it completely discredits him by doing a simple search on Google. The length at which the media is going through to place him in such high regard is completely wrong. What the media is doing is completely wrong.
I believe that Blogging will eventually (if not already) replace traditional Media outlets. Look at the job it’s doing right now. Rather sloppy if you ask me. Of course when CBS airs work that has not been examined thoroughly and it is critical of Bush, the Right tears it to shreds (including CBS itself). Dr. Hammesfahr is a nice play down center field for the Right. With all of this going on, I can see that the Media has become nothing more than entertainment. All it wants is to get a rise out of someone, something, or even a group of people. The Media is now the Jerry Springer of journalism.
The context in which I disagreed with Mike was about the Apple case that seemingly “threatened” journalists in America. My feelings on it were more like this.
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about 5 years ago
I understand your point with the last link, but in all fairness Apple seems to have a problem with its own employees in that respect. I think there’s some issues that need to be taken care of in Cupertino.
I’m glad you realize now that if everything is left to the mainstream media (which is owned by big business), huge checks and balances will be lost. Please note how MSNBC covered the Microsoft antitrust case for an example of this.
Definitely question what you read, and what you hear. Always stay alert.
about 5 years ago
http://www.bu.edu/cdaly/whoisajournalist.html
about 4 years ago
> You need to double check what the TV is spoon feeding your brain, what the
> presenter is saying, and what you’re reading. You need to question before you
> believe.
I couldn’t agree more. I think school should focus much more on teaching children to think critically, to question, instead of simply believing some “authority”, because this skill is so extremely important for any democracy. It is really important to learn to read and question what you have read, to get a “sixth sense” that tells you how much the text can be trusted, and how much biased it probably is. I think that it is more important to grow this skills in children that simply teach them some arbitrary facts that may or may not be important for them.
But I think there are quite some problems:
- The people in charge (politicians, but also religious leaders and corporate bosses) may not really want that people have these skills, because probably they would lose some power, dumb or misinformed people are easier to deceive after all
- So many people don’t seem to _like_ to think critical and really understand, many seem to prefer being entertained instead of enlightened, it is more fun (or at least looks like it for many)
- Mass media focuses on making money, if the audience doesn’t get informed, only entertained, but the money is still made, many mass media makers won’t care (or not care enough)
P.S.: I live in Germany, but i have the impression that the situation isn’t any better in most other countries, probably even worse. Especially in the USA, it seems to me as if the (mass media) news channels focus increasingly more on entertainment, with realy reliable, objective news declining. A worrying trend …