Have I said how much I'm enjoying my class on Old Media, New Media? I really love being back in a classroom, and I find this class to be very stimulating. This week was the first in two weeks' discussion of how journalism is changing (and has changed).
This evening we talked about how public sentiment for journalists keeps declining and how the news organizations keep making themselves more and more into cartoons of their former selves. We talked about the arrogance of the analog news services, especially the NYTimes. (Which I have to say I enjoyed more than I should have.) We talked about how news has become this vaudevillian display where news stories aren't actually told, but incredibly slanted spectacle is given as if it has some meaning. We watch a lot of clips in class, and this is usually a lot of fun, but being forced to watch 3 hours of tv news clips underlined the reasons why I don't watch tv news. It all makes me a little ill. I don't want to see how straight news gets gussied up only to have the lede and important information buried for the sake of marketability.
One thing that we watched that was really amazing in its arrogance was a documentary the NYTimes created and sent to journalism schools to show how real news is made. Thomas Friedman explained the three step process to writing: 1) Collect as much information as you can about the subject; 2) Cross off what you don't believe; 3) Write up the rest.
Let's focus on #2. There was once a time when the basic rational powers of people were respected, but I guess we've moved light years away from the Enlightenment, haven't we? Why are people leaving mainstream media? Arrogance and paternalism. Hello? Cross off what you don't believe? Isn't that slanting the story? The media is all about directing people's thoughts on any subject. Giving two "talking heads" a chance to screech about each side of an issue isn't being balanced. Can we move away from the corporatization of the news or are we too far gone? (I think I could say that about the country, actually.)
Anyhow, for more angry ranting about what a mess the media is, please see Lance.
*sigh* This is a big part of why I switched out of the School of Journalism after one semester.
Posted by: Kristen | February 22, 2006 at 06:34 AM
Thomas Friedman is one of the most arrogant a** in the media. I bile him.
Posted by: Bird | February 22, 2006 at 10:34 AM
"Cross off what you don't believe"? They don't even do that. If they did they wouldn't publish anything the Bush Leaguers say! (Well, Judith Miller would, or did, but that's another story.) What they actually seem to do is this: When you find something you do believe and even know to be the truth, go find someone from the other side to call it a lie.
Sounds like a good class though.
Posted by: Mannion | February 23, 2006 at 03:27 PM
I've always considered jounalism such a noble profession. And by journalism, I'm not talking about Bill O'Reilly-type journalism...but, I'm sure you knew that.
Most times, being probably very naive -- yet not completely cynical -- ya gotta give me that! -- I still search out the part of the person I'm watching or reading that seems to be "noble." -- Or used to be noble.
People will really rag all over TIME or Newsweek or whatever -- but, sometimes I'll read just an excellent article and notice that I've never heard of the writer...so I'll give him/her credit for being noble. For trying to fight the good fight in such a competitive field...
There have to be, have to be, little diamonds amid all that garbage.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it! (Little naive me...)
Posted by: blue girl | February 24, 2006 at 12:34 PM
Lance-- Well, the documentary was from the early-to-mid '90s, so it's possible the modus operandi has changed.
BG-- I definitely agree with you that there are still diamonds out there and still people who believe more in journalistic intergrity than the bottom line. It's just that the people who are running news agencies don't. They don't seem to even think about the responsibility to the people journalists have always held.
Posted by: Claire | February 24, 2006 at 02:50 PM