tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15211552.post7544143977357244922..comments2023-03-12T11:56:29.534-05:00Comments on Tams' Musings: Down with the drama of extremism!Tamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09049732223163791663noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15211552.post-32380216116797719122009-09-16T13:37:47.811-05:002009-09-16T13:37:47.811-05:00I majored in journalism and one of my favorite pro...I majored in journalism and one of my favorite professors, Wendy Waite, sat me down my senior year and shared some reality with me about the industry. She was my media ethics professor, and she was a powerful influence in setting my compass about journalistic integrity. She made me realize that while I was great at writing, especially investigative or special interest feature stories, I probably wouldn't have enjoyed the constant struggle I would experience between the business and my ethics, and when she said I'd have to move around a lot to move up the ladder, that just sealed my fate against pursuing what had been my chosen profession.<br /><br />And I agree with you about that change in focus on news media companies to earn larger and larger profits instead of performing a public service has been disastrous. <br /><br />Fortunately, with our expanded access to both information and music on the internet, I think we're now able to have different voices in addition to the ones big businesses support. Perhaps today's age will become known as a time when new classics were made and discovered.Tamshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09049732223163791663noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15211552.post-28964372248267526312009-09-16T02:32:05.246-05:002009-09-16T02:32:05.246-05:00Not surprised that your views are similar to mine....Not surprised that your views are similar to mine.<br />To some degree, the loss of independent media (the 4th estate, as the framers of the constitution referred to it) is a factor to be sure. I had no idea what reporters or newscasters opinions were about Viet Nam for instance when I was growing up. A small segment of news was labeled as opinion and always disassociated with the broadcast or newspaper by a disclaimer. Now it is very difficult to find facts and honest reporting, it's always more opinion and spin than news. We can pinpoint the start of this with the deregulation Newt Gingrich lobbied for on behalf of Rupert Murdoch. Before deregulation, a single owner or corporation could only own 1 media outlet in any given market. Only U.S. citizens could own U.S. news outlets (This was the thing that prevented Murdoch from buying up U.S. media.) The general trend of giant corporations gobbling up all the smaller ones until only a handful controlled a market entirely used to be called monopoly and was outlawed by wiser people who experienced the ills caused by monopolization 1st hand. Murdoch was of course only one example of the problem. Look at what corporate conglomeration did for/to the music industry. When all that stuff we consider classic was recorded, there were thousands of small record companies representing a multitude of views about what was valuable music, then slowly but surely corporations saw some of these folks were making lots of money and moved in. By the 1990s instead of thousands of companies independently owned there were only 5. Where a small company was happy to sell 70,000 copies, the big companies couldn't be bothered unless they could sell millions. This is like MacDonald's buying every restaurant in the world and turning it into a cheap fast food joint. News is the same, it's been turned into entertainment, though not only is it reduced to the lowest common denominator,(lowest IQ as well) it now is very easily manipulated because there are so few sources. We have witnessed the end of news media as the 4th estate. You now have people who profit by whipping up hysterical fanaticism, crying crocodile tears and exploiting the less intelligent among us. The biggest problem we face has nothing to do with right or left. It's a battle against the dumbing down of the population. The dumber they are the easier they are to manipulate. This is why you have the complete loss of civility in circles... mobs of horribly misinformed perhaps innocent but largely unintelligent people whose fears, frustrations, and prejudices are wholly exploited and incited. It's downright sad.Ben Newhttp://mightyparrotband.comnoreply@blogger.com