The age of print journalism is coming
to an end in our era. We receive news on multiple platforms and in multiple forms
now due to the amount of technology we use on a daily basis. The basic ideas of
journalism itself have changed drastically as well. We expect news at the tip
of our fingers when we want it. We as a people do not want to wait until 6 o’clock
for our news or the next day in the paper. We utilize new technology in order
to get news faster and in greater quantities.
In chapter 6, McChesney writes
about how the journalism system in this country is failing us as a nation. He says
“the key institution that would keep people informed of what was taking place
and give citizens the capacity to resist tyranny and protect their freedoms”
(p. 171). He feels that this model is being ignored in a sense and we as a
people aren't receiving this model of journalism today. He then goes on to
deliver ideas about how it has failed us. From the idea of a lack of excitement
within the creative aspects of journalism, to absence of a government watchdog
system that would protect us from fraudulent truths, McChesney believes that
the old journalistic model is unrecognizable in today’s journalism world. Chapter 7 provides us with some more thoughts
on things we have already touched on such as the internet and democracy as well
as journalism and capitalism. McChesney offers a set of ways to fix the
problems seen is these issues but firmly believes that they will be unattainable.
He goes on to infer that he believes that in the current political economic
climate these ideas have no chance of coming to full fruition.
Through his offering of the big
picture of societies place as it intersects with capitalism and technology, I began
to ask some questions about the digital world around me. One question was about
his idea of fixes for these problems he sees in our technological world I found
myself asking what the easiest way to get the most accurate information was. And
of course I said the web was the easiest. But being able to find the most
accurate up to date info is where it became tricky for me to discern. With the
amount of news sources number in the bazillions (or what it seems to be), our
information can quickly become misrepresented or misguided. From AOL to yahoo and CNN to MSNBC, who can we
actually trust to provide accurate unbiased news at the moment it happens? I think
that in the current capitalist market, trusting the news conglomerate is difficult
because like McChesney thought, is it allowing us to form our own opinion. The fact
that people will trust a comedy show more than a news outlet is kind of
unsettling. It beckons questions of reliability and trust while simultaneously
leads to asking how long has this been done? Here is a link where a poll was conducted to see which news outlets were most trusted. I was surprised at the
list because of their reputations as news organizations.
I think that in conclusion, our
news needs to find a new place in our society. It needs to exist in a place
where we can use this news to fully participate in the politics and democracy
of our nation. It should exist within an arena of truth protection, where what
we see is what we get, the news, not an opinion on what we see. With the
conglomerates controlling the stories and visuals of the news, we lose our
right within a democracy to be informed and to create our own opinions to
support our democratic visions of the nation.
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