The Days Without Print Media
Being someone on the receiving end of the print journalism (which now officially includes gaming magazines, not just newspapers), I've been thinking of just how this would affect the political environment.
The problem lies in the formatting of print and newspapers that doesn't exist in other media. Print allows longer articles, with as much detail as space allows. Online, in theory, has the same format, but in reality people don't sit and read as much. Too often, links are given for more information, which enhances the already short-attention readers have. Television and radio: both very short and reliant on pictures and on focusing on one major element of a story.
I think the most detailed analysis of politics will go to the online space. And moreover, where stories will be made and broken. Television, especially when you go into larger and larger markets, relies on taking stories broken from newspapers, and doing their own research on it. So, with online being instant, rather than waiting until the next morning for the newspaper, how can that be bad?
Two things:
1) The need to get the stories out is already, in my opinion, too fast. By breaking a news story, they may the initial ratings for it, but also won't do as much due diligence for the accuracy and detail the story needs.
2) There may not be as many stories broken by professional reporters, who have the skills to do the research (at least in general) and influence to have those in power actually answer any needed questions.
In politics, having online be the primary source of news means more people will try to take control of a story, rather than find the reality in it.
If you think the New York Times and Washington Post are biased, they have nothing on what online blogs have (and online blogs are now just as much part of the journalism space as news organizations). You have already seen what kind of poo is being thrown by both the left and the right on the Internets, think of what would happen without any kind of moderator. Even if the way each news organization's objectivity may be flawed in some way (usually not in a politically biased manner), at least they try to be objective.
Newspapers have been the best source of professional reporters, who are objective and look for as much detail in the stories as possible. While things may change for online and print, it's my hope that someplace will exist that those reporters can exist and do their jobs right, especially in the realm of politics.
The problem lies in the formatting of print and newspapers that doesn't exist in other media. Print allows longer articles, with as much detail as space allows. Online, in theory, has the same format, but in reality people don't sit and read as much. Too often, links are given for more information, which enhances the already short-attention readers have. Television and radio: both very short and reliant on pictures and on focusing on one major element of a story.
I think the most detailed analysis of politics will go to the online space. And moreover, where stories will be made and broken. Television, especially when you go into larger and larger markets, relies on taking stories broken from newspapers, and doing their own research on it. So, with online being instant, rather than waiting until the next morning for the newspaper, how can that be bad?
Two things:
1) The need to get the stories out is already, in my opinion, too fast. By breaking a news story, they may the initial ratings for it, but also won't do as much due diligence for the accuracy and detail the story needs.
2) There may not be as many stories broken by professional reporters, who have the skills to do the research (at least in general) and influence to have those in power actually answer any needed questions.
In politics, having online be the primary source of news means more people will try to take control of a story, rather than find the reality in it.
If you think the New York Times and Washington Post are biased, they have nothing on what online blogs have (and online blogs are now just as much part of the journalism space as news organizations). You have already seen what kind of poo is being thrown by both the left and the right on the Internets, think of what would happen without any kind of moderator. Even if the way each news organization's objectivity may be flawed in some way (usually not in a politically biased manner), at least they try to be objective.
Newspapers have been the best source of professional reporters, who are objective and look for as much detail in the stories as possible. While things may change for online and print, it's my hope that someplace will exist that those reporters can exist and do their jobs right, especially in the realm of politics.
posted by SeanM at 2:27 PM
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