News and Journalism in the Information/Digital Age
How're we doing?
We certainly have tons of information at our fingertips. And we don't have to wait days, hours, or minutes to get the latest news. Within seconds there's video, pictures, commentary, blogs, op-eds, 'articles' from every corner of the earth, on the internet web and cloud.
Journalism has taken quite a hit, though. Particularly 'investigative' journalism, and the kind of writing that not only informs but educates.
What do you think?
Here's 13 Incredible Opinions Spawnie Has On Information In The Digital Age
"Son," he said without preamble, "never trust a man who doesn't drink, because he's probably a self-righteous sort, a man who thinks he knows right from wrong all the time. Some of them are good men, but in the name of goodness, they cause most of the suffering in the world. They're the judges, the meddlers. And, son, never trust a man who drinks but refuses to get drunk. They're usually afraid of something deep down inside, either that they're a coward or a fool or mean and violent. You can't trust a man who's afraid of himself. But sometimes, son, you can trust a man who occasionally kneels before a toilet. The chances are that he is learning something about humility and his natural human foolishness, about how to survive himself. It's damned hard for a man to take himself too seriously when he's heaving his guts into a dirty toilet bowl.
Where are the GIFs with cats in them?
Hope is the denial of reality
Disagreed, investigative journalism is far more invigorated now than ever.
Originally Posted by Ominous Gamer
Information is easier to get then ever the issue is that people don't trust anymore.
The media has lost a ton of credibility with their shenanigans (a good thing in general) however the flip side is that now people doubt what could be safely considered fact. The internet has created whole forums and sites devoted to group think, only using sources that are "Friendly." Its one of the reasons why I enjoy this site so much - while our population is small we do have a lot of different perspectives.
Well said. There are too many "me too" sites out there that have just friendly voices that re-affirm each others prejudices.
Good well-sourced and thoughtful investigative journalism has taken a hit in that it's easily lost in the unending sea of sites that copy each other in order to generate clicks from attention-challenged readers.
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
That says more about the readers than the news publications though.
Hope is the denial of reality
Disagreed. It may be flooded by the amount of crap that is generated nowadays but with the nowadays there are more people than every investigating - thoughtfully and well-sourced - even if others aren't.
more, but the sources are different, speadout across smaller user bases, and/or lacking in a credible history, and that scares people. When the New York Times killed its Environmental Desk, Global Warming coverage dropped, while the percentage of denial articles rose. A year later other sources are starting to fill in the gap, but the leader seems to be Dread's favorite, Al Jazeera, since he has so many colorful nicknames for them.
Smaller operations are more likely to be silenced since they don't have the funds to fight lengthy court battles (thats if they aren't bought out to begin with).
Then again, only 6 corporations control 90% of the media in America; down from 50 30 years ago.
Last edited by Ominous Gamer; 11-30-2013 at 09:05 PM.
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."
So...you don't trust online dictionaries? Doesn't this board offer a spell check function?
Faith is Hope (see Loki's sig for details)
If hindsight is 20-20, why is it so often ignored?
Yikes. And how many corporations "control" the device and delivery modes used to access "news and information"? My guess is less than ten.
Fewer than ten.
For anyone insinuating that having a corporation control a media source somehow leads to a pro-business bias for that source, I'd really like to know your take on MSNBC...
Not that you asked me but my take is they are a Google wanna-be.Fewer than ten.
For anyone insinuating that having a corporation control a media source somehow leads to a pro-business bias for that source, I'd really like to know your take on MSNBC...
Faith is Hope (see Loki's sig for details)
If hindsight is 20-20, why is it so often ignored?
More is not better. A large number of people "investigating" and reporting the same sources under the same flawed assumptions and with the same flawed understanding is not incredible, it just generates a great deal more noise. I'll concede that there are some advantages even with crowdsourced investigations but my personal experience has been that it sometimes takes a great deal of work in the form of googling to find a person who's done even more work with finding and analyzing primary sources. Ie. finding good investigative reporting/journalism requires, in my experience, a thorough investigative patient kinda obsessed reader.
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
You could probably draw parallells to various forms of bias in scientific publishing, as well as to good things in the same industry.
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
I stopped paying attention to the board's spell-check function, it kept getting things wrong.
Last night as I lay in bed, looking up at the stars, I thought, “Where the hell is my ceiling?"
Another parallel I was mulling over -- degrees in Education and Journalism that don't necessarily produce great teachers or journalists, like degrees in Media/Communications that crank out TV personalities reading tele-prompters. Might be better to have experts in certain fields do the teaching, investigating, reporting, writing. Would that encourage quality and in-depth analysis on the front-end, with more educated (not just 'informed') readers on the back-end?
You could just have a person do a BA in their field of interest and then an MA in journalism.
Hope is the denial of reality
A minor in Journalism (or Media Communications) would be sufficient. So long as major degrees mean graduating with expert knowledge of a specific field, minors are secondary "helpers", usually for employment prospects.
The assumption being that one can teach all there is to know about journalism in about 3-4 undergrad classes.
Hope is the denial of reality
Perhaps. The more important "assumption" is that expertise in any field can't be gained by getting a degree in Journalism.
And expertise in journalism can't be gained by studying other fields.
Hope is the denial of reality
Is there an echo in here?
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/1...12061/abstract
Given the choice between reporting on the study above and the latest run-in with the law by Bieber et al., I wonder which the media will cover.
Hope is the denial of reality
Should we ask oil-wealthy Nigeria why they didn't clamp down on Boko Haram sufficiently....or blame media for not covering it until over 300 female students were abducted?http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/1...12061/abstract
Given the choice between reporting on the study above and the latest run-in with the law by Bieber et al., I wonder which the media will cover.
I'm going to guess that the unwillingness of the Nigerian media to cover these events well contributes to the government's lackluster response.
Hope is the denial of reality
It's still a guess. We don't really know if information/news is driven by media or journalists or governments.....in countries that don't have a "Free Press", Fourth Estate protections, or 'sunshine laws' like the US does.
edit: In that context, I can understand why some countries have designated internet access a "right".
What makes you think Nigeria doesn't have a free press?
Hope is the denial of reality
You tell me....why didn't "news reports" that a terrorist group like Boko Haram was marauding and kidnapping....make Nigerian officials take notice?What makes you think Nigeria doesn't have a free press?
Edit: Along the same lines, Malaysia doesn't have a heavily regulated or repressed press...but they don't really have a "Free Press" as we define it in the US. Neither does South Korea, apparently.
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