There is a dysfunction in the modern press. "Media is doing a worse job than they use to."This was mentioned a lot in the article. It's been really hard for the country and society to try to understand the world and what's really going on. Making decisions and developing ideas has all been manipulated by media. Media and advertisement has been spreading trends, gossips, and ideas that fundamentally isn't what citizens should be knowing. We should be getting the real news and information of what's going on around the world, but instead people rather watch a comedy show, reality show, or celebrity news rather than international news or war, politics, cultural analysis, and the "truth." Every magazine I've seen on the shelf lately has been about celebrity gossips, scandals, weightless/diet, and trends. What good does this information do for the knowledge of the individual? Fallows, the writer of this article stated, "We are no longer a national audience receiving news from a handful of trusted gatekeepers; we're now a million or more clusters of consumers, harvesting information from like-minded providers," and he is right. We really can't trust our sources now but how often do people question their sources? It is so easy to create a blog and spread information. It is as simple as uploading a blog piece of false news. Anyone can upload and write nowadays and everyone can read. As the prologue of the article states, there is "a decline in journalistic substance, seriousness, and sense of proportion." It's even true that journalism, newspaper, magazines, and the internet sources are all profit-driven businesses now. Where have the real substance and information gone? The substance in media, and news has been giving people what they want opposed to what they should really know. "One by one, the buffers between what people want and what the media can afford to deliver have been stripped away," as quoted in the article and I absolutely agree with this. I feel that the media delivers to the viewer what they want to know just to obtain the most hits and views. The news will only cover so much information or only certain events solely because they don't want to spark anymore fear in society than what could already possible be there. This is a theory that I've had about the news and media. There is a purpose in hiding information. Not spilling every single details or the exact truth of all stories and not mentioning what's really going on, ALL is for a purpose and that purpose is to simply hide the truth. Hiding the truth is to minimize fear because with fear, there is questioning and with questioning there is corruption. This leaves a lot of power within the news and media in manipulation and control.
As I read on, I truly found a lot of interesting quotes and references made in this article. "The destruction of the bundled business model for newspaper... the rise of increasingly targeted and niche-ified information sources and advertising vehicles." People can get more of what they want and less of what someone else thinks they should have. Denton mentioned in the article that you get an idea of what's going to be big and what's not, which usually can be predicted. What's going to be a big hit will be the topic that most writers or journalists will shoot for.
I also found interesting what they quoted about journalism. "The job of journalism is to provide surprise." It also mentioned the idea of "a rounded personality" meaning that it gives the viewer options of different emotions: outraged, amusement, diverted, inspired, and surprised. I do feel that journalism must spark interests to viewers and it should attract readers. In writing the headline, Brian Moylan stated, "It's almost as if you've got to get the whole story in the headline but leave out enough that people will want to click. You can kill a story by using a too-clever of a headline." This is absolutely true. I feel that if the headline had too intelligent of a word and sounded a bit too complicated or metaphoric for the average reader, it simply just won't make sense and why would you want to click on something to read that doesn't even make much sense to you? I also feel like he is right about the headline. Giving a bit but not the complete idea or story will cause curiosity in the viewer or reader and curiosity will make someone want to dig deeper and read on. This is true because based on personal experience, I abide by this idea as well. I feel like it's a natural instinct.
As a reader. I try to find valid sources nowadays. The sources of information being spread could be a fraud and everything that an individual is absorbing can be a lie. The truth is hard to find when everything that's being talked about isn't exactly what society needs to know. The fact that news and journalism has been profit-driven is an irreversible and destructive thing. News and journalism is no longer what it use to be and the truthful essence of what news and journalism is suppose to be is deteriorating fast.
Fallow, James. "Learning to Love the New Media." (2011 April): pages 34-49. Print.
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