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Some of the bought & paid for media

I’ll bet you a few bucks that if a new media organization came along that

a) presented the facts in an unbiased way

b) wasn’t afraid to say “Nothing new to report today. Believe it or not, not a whole lot happens in a typical day.”

c) presented both sides of an argument and allowed the viewer/reader to come to their own opinion


It might end up doing pretty well. I think a majority of people are sick and tired of a mainstream media that is sensationalized, polarized, and clearly feeding the rapid decline of society.

🤷🏼‍♂️ 0.02
You are being too optimistic. Plenty of people on all sides are not interested in facts. Only what they want to hear.
 
I’ll bet you a few bucks that if a new media organization came along that

a) presented the facts in an unbiased way

b) wasn’t afraid to say “Nothing new to report today. Believe it or not, not a whole lot happens in a typical day.”

c) presented both sides of an argument and allowed the viewer/reader to come to their own opinion


It might end up doing pretty well.
How much do you think people would be willing to pay per month to get this?

Also, how many (b) days would it take for people to just stop showing up? Because those who complain "why aren't we hearing about (x)?" would say there's ALWAYS something new happening, suggesting such an outlet would be hiding stuff "we" "need" to know.
 
As far as I know, she still has a decent amount of credibility.

Justin’s credibility is beyond redemption at this point, she must have an inkling of that 😉
I think most of us can agree on Current Canadian Management's level of cred, just asking the link to Canadian media being subsidized.
 
You're not wrong there. So how do you help smaller newsrooms that are supposed to be doing the bulk of in-your-backyard reporting, then? Or do we settle for whatever Big Media decides to share with us, regardless of whether they cover stuff in our own backyards?
It seems to me that there is an awful lot of information made available on this site
for free. And there doesn't seem to be a lack of opinion. Rumour has it that there are other sites like this out there.

At very least somebody could follow the discussions for ideas. Papers used to follow the courts, the school board, town councils and even local sermons and social clubs. Not to mention hatches, matches and dispatches.

Is there really a lack of material? Or is there lack of quality reporters that can write an entertaining sentence?

The papers/media appear to have hired all the out of work preachers and punted reporters.
 
It seems to me that there is an awful lot of information made available on this site
for free. And there doesn't seem to be a lack of opinion. Rumour has it that there are other sites like this out there.
LOADS of good stuff here, yes, as with other similar sites. Like other sites, including media sites, consumers have to be able to pick out opinion from fact from rumour.
... Papers media outlets used to follow the courts, the school board, town councils and even local sermons and social clubs ...
As someone who built up a callused butt covering same (except for sermons & social clubs - OK, prominent speakers @ social clubs), FTFY :) And you're right there, too - my media experience is now about 20 years old.
... Is there really a lack of material? Or is there lack of quality reporters that can write an entertaining sentence?
Since anyone can write material on the interwebs, there's no lack of it for sure. There are lots of reporters who can write understandable copy out there, so that's not it. I don't think it's a problem JUST with the producers of all this information out there.

Multi-layers to deal with ...
  1. Public trust in media of any kind (or, specifically, lack thereof);
  2. Not enough media/reporters with not enough experience/depth to cover in context;
  3. Media owners pumping agendas (which affects 1 and 2);
  4. Media owners (or "owners of owners") wanting to squeeze more profits out of their operations, cutting staff (leading to "punted reporters) and, in some cases, buying up outlets to gut/close them, leaving some communities with no local coverage - unless something big enough (think disaster - see 8) happens to draw legacy/larger media eyes;
  5. Social media addicting people to getting short, un-nuanced bursts of information with next-to-zero context, leading to
  6. Consumers having less time/patience/desire to do anything more than the most cursory of scanning of headlines, as opposed to getting into the guts of an issue;
  7. Said lack of time/patience/desire leading to less critical thought being applied to information of all kinds;
  8. Consumers being addicted to "free" media, which drives outlets to get ad or other revenue based on click-through-traffic, which fuels the "if it bleeds, it leads" click-bait triage of news/information, and short, no-context content mentioned in 5;
  9. Growing polarization among consumers (probably driven by lack of patience/energy to hold conflicting/nuanced mutually-exclusive ideas in their heads - kinda 7 - combined with lots of outlets to feed only what fits into one's world view in simple, un-nuanced nuggets - 5 & 6 & 7 - out there) with very little public space for anyone to concede anything to the other side of what they think.
Where to start, where to start?

OP edit to add #9
 
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Sure. But from where I sit, it's decidedly more partisan now than it was not too long ago in my lifetime.

The author isn't the first to suggest that big media have switched to subscriber-satisfying content generation in order to stay alive. All can subscribe to bubbles that reinforce the way they want to see the world. All are happy.

In a big city multiple papers with multiple audiences could be financially viable. London and New York worked with Party publications. Even dissenters could afford to publish their own opinions.

In small towns the printer/publisher/editor couldn't afford to upset his local market. Either he had to keep his opinions to himself, hew to the community line, or, if the community was split, give both sides equal time. His decisions affected the amount of bread on his family's table.

That model died with the telegraph, the rise of Reuters/AP/CP and the newspaper chains, the move to big cities and the death of the small towns.

Radio and broadcast TV sped up the process.

The concurrent demise of the churches and social clubs (cause or effect) left Lorne Green and Walter Cronkite in the role of national preachers with congregations that religiously attended every evening. They were more faithful in their observances than ardent protestants, let alone observant Catholics.

And then Time Warner bought the pulpit. They became the Established Church. And just like the Churches of Rome, England, Scotland, Sweden etc al before it, when technology permitted Dissenters found other ways to contact other like-minded individuals.

Time Warner needs to protect the value of its investment, just the way old time preachers, politicians, judges and colonels had to.

Dissenters threaten their profits. Better to denigrate them and try to sideline them through humor, sarcasm, and label them as the mob, the masses, proles, populists, while decrying the successful dissenting preachers as rabble rousers and demagogues.

Eventually the Establishment loses to the Dissenters, learns to work within the new framework and the Dissenters become the new Establishment.

Life is a comedy.
 
LOADS of good stuff here, yes, as with other similar sites. Like other sites, including media sites, consumers have to be able to pick out opinion from fact from rumour.

Isn't that what a good reporter used to do?

Listen to the town gossip. Sort out the facts and the rumours. Report on opinions and debates. Be informative and entertaining.

Christie Blatchford's name comes immediately to mind. I hope she was not the last of her kind.
 
Isn't that what a good reporter used to do?

Listen to the town gossip. Sort out the facts and the rumours. Report on opinions and debates. Be informative and entertaining ...
Well, people are out there sorting out facts from rumours and reporting opinions, with varying degrees of education, experience, bias and success.

Depending on the reporter/outlet, though, some people take it as biblical-scale gospel (with non-believers being considered & called facists, cucks, communists, snowflakes, etc.) or propagandistic heresy never to be believed in any way, shape or form (with believers being considered & called fascists, cucks, communists, snowflakes, etc.).

Add to my list of 8 upthread
9. Growing polarization among consumers (probably driven by lack of patience/energy to hold conflicting/nuanced mutually-exclusive ideas in their heads combined with lots of outlets to feed only what fits into one's world view in simple, un-nuanced nuggets out there) with very little public space for anyone to concede anything to the other side of what they think ...
PoliticalSpectrum.jpg
 
The reversion to "ancient" tribal names for "the other" - fascist, communist, liberals, conservatives, capitalists, socialists, catholics, protestants, progressives, reactionaries - words that have no philosophical underpinnings anymore and are nothing more than handy pejoratives that replace older pejoratives deemed politically incorrect - argues for my view that, indeed, life is a comedy. In the Greek tragedy sense of birth-death-rebirth.

Team colours, flags and totems are more lasting indicators of disputants than any statements of philosophy or purpose.
 
Re team colours.

Red, Blue, Green, White.

Constantinople 531 Nika Riots - a political/religious riot over a chariot race.
 
The reversion to "ancient" tribal names for "the other" - fascist, communist, liberals, conservatives, capitalists, socialists, catholics, protestants, progressives, reactionaries - words that have no philosophical underpinnings anymore and are nothing more than handy pejoratives that replace older pejoratives deemed politically incorrect - argues for my view that, indeed, life is a comedy. In the Greek tragedy sense of birth-death-rebirth.

Team colours, flags and totems are more lasting indicators of disputants than any statements of philosophy or purpose.
Could be, but still feeding the environment & conditioning consumers, historically correct/incorrect as they may be.
 
Could be, but still feeding the environment & conditioning consumers, historically correct/incorrect as they may be.

Absolutely. But there has never been a time without dispute, without strongly held opinions (regardless of the actual opinions strongly held), without partisans, without militants.

My particular British bias (not Scots or English but British) is that a combination of shitluck, trial and error and sheer exhaustion resulted in a modus vivendi that permitted the triumph of the mushy middle over the militant fringes. For a while. A long while.

That modus involved a lot of turning a blind eye (toleration), hypocrisy (civility) and lying (politeness). And just plain ignoring the other while getting on with the business of minding the shop and putting bread on the table.
 
Absolutely. But there has never been a time without dispute, without strongly held opinions (regardless of the actual opinions strongly held), without partisans, without militants ....
That's now amplified by the prevalence of and addiction to social media that wasn't around way back when, affecting the media/information ecosphere in a very different way than when Luther nailed the Theses on the front door. VERY different interactions between dissidents and central authorities. Now, people from all over the world can jump at the speed of "send" on anyone consider a heretic and disagree - or threaten in various degrees of detail/explicitness.
 
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