With some recent data showing that there is a decline among public opinion regarding the honesty of the journalists in America coupled with factors such as media outlets' need to report sensational stories to keep up in the ratings game and slanted reporting to appease television/print/internet audiences, it seems as though the worst may be happening....
It is bad enough for media outlets to have turned away from the "seek truth and report it" role and transformed into ratings chasers which have twisted and slanted news reports to the degree that the public has lost a great deal of faith in the Media's ability to report the truth. But couple this with the continued dependency of the American public on the Media to provide information on politics and such, and it appears as though we don't care if we are being lied to as long as someone is telling us something.
There are numerous alternative media outlets with which an American can choose to acquire their information regarding important national and global news, and I do believe that these are being sought out by those people who care more about finding out the truth within events and issues. I just find it funny that so many Americans place thier trust in media outlets that are comprised of the very journalists that they feel as being largely dishonest. It makes me wonder if the majority of news watching is in an attempt to get the facts or perhaps, rather, another form of entertainment where the trend of 'infotainmtent' does nothing but feed the national audiences' need to be entertained.
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You pose some great points. It really makes you wonder if people care whether or not they are being fed inaccuracies by various mediums in an attempt to bait individuals for higher ratings. In addition, I believe that with shows like the Colbert Report; FOX, CNN, MSNBC, etc feels as if they have to compete on the same scope for the same audience. This should not be the cause since they should be focused on the hard news and not the soft. We also have to take corporate bureaucracies into consideration. Are news reporters feeding infotainment because it is what they believe is true or only because their producers tell them it's their job to do so?
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said. It seems if you are lefty you will stick to MSNBC and if you are a righty you will stick to Fox. They are in competition for ratings which i promote their ability to do so, to be free to conduct their news orginazation how they see fit. Id much rather they make their news entertainment a platform rather than the government telling them not to. It is the classic example though of people thinking can we do somthing how we want rather than should we do somthing that we want. But that is what makes us Free the ability to have the choice. Let the ratings determine the content, yet somehow make a disclaimer that their reporting is opinionated, not to sure how they would go about doing it though. Nice blog.
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