Today I noticed that a neighbor of mine had taken the free local newspaper still in its blue plastic wrapper and tossed it directly int he recycling bin. In this town there’s currently a spate of over development happening about a mile from our street, with three projects yet to be finished and another 4 or 5 in the early states of development. The local paper this week has several articles about the current development as well as the plants for new buildings. This is a college town, so during the school year there are an extra 28,000 people here, many of them driving cars down the road between our street and downtown. The schools are overcrowded. Electric power crashes often — could the grid be over burdened? The police wants more tax dollars to increase the size of its force. Why are my neighbors disinterested in what’s going on around us?
I asked myself, why do people care little about the press? I tried to piece it out:
- Citizens need information in order to govern themselves.
- The press needs to provide the information citizens need to govern themselves.
- Journalists serve as government watchdogs.
- The First Amendment allows freedom of the press so journalists should be able to say whatever they want to about the government.
- The U.S. press makes money selling ad space to companies.
- Advertisers don’t think they reach enough people by advertising in newspapers
- Newspapers are going out of business.
- Advertisers also seek TV audiences.
- TV wants to attract advertising dollars so they tend to air superficial stuff rather than actual info that citizens need to self-govern.
- TV audiences are attracted by fast, sensational, colorful images more than actual information. They’re also attracted to information about such things as aliens, Hitler and wealthy bimbos in various cities.
- TV also makes money by selling advertising minutes to political candidates.
- Political candidates lie and attack each other.
- The internet has the potential to provide information, but most people don’t find the bonafide journalists.
- The internet sells information about its users so that marketers can find the exact buying habits of specific individuals and target them.
This adds up to a population constantly bombarded with others on the make. When they contemplate the news, they may think journalists or media owners are trying to sell them something. They don’t trust the press.
A logical response might be to go look up information on your own. But if you have no context for it, by what standards do you assess its validity?
Media Fingers 