Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by JayBarti on July 28, 2009 at 9:01am

Very true, when news became about entertainment and making money it lost something.

In Canada there are 3 maybe 4 major media conglomerates and they all engage in similar practices when it comes to reporting the news. The paper I work for spins the stories to suit their ideology and agenda, granted its an independent weekly so I am not that surprised.

Permalink Reply by Фелч Гроган on July 28, 2009 at 9:47am

This is why the much maligned Al Jazeera is head and shoulders above anything mainstream in the west.

Permalink Reply by JayBarti on July 28, 2009 at 10:11am

I agree, I enjoy reading Al Jazeera, and supported the campaign to bring it to Canadian TV.

Permalink Reply by JayBarti on July 28, 2009 at 3:07pm

Never assume that you are ever getting the full story. Never assume there are no value statements in your sitcoms. Never assume you are too smart to be fooled by advertising.

I learned all that working for print media for the past 20 years. It quickly kills the illusion of the level of accuracy most news organizations try and project. Seeing the raw material vs what eventually gets published is very eye-opening, and very quickly changes your view of news.

Of course compartmentalizing and selling the news is all that really seems to want to be done these days. Syndication is where the big news dollars are and it is all about sound bites and news nuggets.

Just look at what AP is trying to do... News Link

The Associated Press last week rolled out its brave new plan to "apply protective format to news." The AP's news registry will "tag and track all AP content online to assure compliance with terms of use," and it will provide a "platform for protect, point, and pay." That's a lot of "p"-prefaced jargon, but it boils down to a sort of DRM for news—"enforcement," in AP-speak.