Gearheart- New media has created a higher degree of accessibility
Greenberg- "One can understand the temptation that as the media environment becomes more clutters you have to do more to get more eyeballs on your stuff...the non-profit sector is not exempt from any of this." News organizations that interact with the people they serve should continue to be developed. They should give them the information that matters, not the information that gets the most attention.
Wilson- We have been forced to reevaluate the definition of journalistic merit. The new media landscape is more inclusive, and that is not necessarily a bad thing.
The highlight of the forum for me was when Jon Greenberg stated that News organizations should provide their readers with the pertinent information, not just the information that gets the most attention. This speaks exactly to what we’ve been discussing in class recently regarding censorship and who has the right to censor. We have discussed whether citizens should be given the responsibility or have the capacity to choose what they read. Ms. Gearheart stated that it is the duty of a “responsible consumer” to consume diversely styled and biased media. However, Jon Greenberg, “at the risk of sounding like an elitist”, argued her point, saying that he didn’t believe the citizenry had the capacity to do so. Like Sunstein, Greenberg said that allowing too much choice in the media will lead to over-polarization, and that you cannot trust consumers to be responsible. Mr. Wilson agreed, asserting, “we accept information that confirms out biases”.
ReplyDeleteThere is no denying that reading about issues like politics, foreign affairs, health care, and other such topics in the newspaper is not always a pleasant experience. However, this is not to say that it shouldn’t be done. Where blogs and other new media sources do provide a certain amount of entertainment, sometimes biased, sometimes neutral, and at times provides legitimate news, a blog is a very different source from a newspaper. A blog, while it might provide accurate information, is innately less reliable than a legitimate news source. The panelists discussed the fact that the majority of blogs and other new media sources get their news from major institutions like newspapers or major television news corporations. Therefore, these blogs rely on the institutions, but are not supported by them if it should ever come to a court case. Ms. Gearheart said, “Joe blogger does not have an institution to back them up when it counts”.
The panelists seem to have positive views on the increase of opinion based media in our age of sensationalism. I personally am a bit more skeptical.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the more opinionated new media becomes, the louder the echo chamber will be. I agree with Ms. Gearheart that new media has created a “higher degree of accessibility”. However, rather than a positive improvement, I believe that this increased accessibility will not result in people viewing a broader degree of material. As Cass Sunstien pointed out, the increased accessibility is accompanied by an increased ability to filter unwanted material out. People more and more often will only be hearing the opinionated articles of people who have the same opinions as they do, for as Mr. Wilson said, “we accept information that confirms out biases.” For these reasons I worry that the increase in opinion based new media will only worsen the negative effects of the echo chambers.
For traditional media I believe that the increase in opinionated journalism will result in an increase of sensational topics. Especially as new media cuts away at the revenue for traditional media, journalists will be under more and more pressure to write articles that attract readers. Opinionated articles, in particular ones discussing sensational topics, are very entertaining. This relates to the much to commonly used phrase, “if it bleeds it leads.” Newspaper editors are giving the majority of attention to entertaining articles, which they hope will increase their ratings and revenue. Therefore I believe that opinionated journalism will lead to more sensational stories, not ones that will actually benefit the readers. For this reason, I strongly disagree with Mr. Greenburg, who believes that the increase in opinion based media may give the people the “information that matters, not the information that gets the most attention.”