Cowboy Confessional

Everybody is the media.

Like any ecosystem, the media cannot be destroyed, but it does evolve.  Subjective are all opinions if new ecosystems are preferable to older ones (for example, would Greenland prefer to be green again, as when it was first discovered).  Bacteria thriving in a cesspool might well object to humans adding disinfectant.

Likewise with liberals, reporters and the media. Being a fan and occasional participant in the old media, I marvel at how the bacteria therein are rapidly being eaten by a new bug.

Editors attest that people are hungry for content.  In days gone by that content came from a small set of providers.  Before FM radio was wide spread, people received their daily world view from three major broadcast networks (ABC, NBC and the Communist Broadcasting System), whatever local newspapers existed (two if you lived in a big town), and a spider web of rumor passed along by friends, family and traveling salesmen (who also passed along many cases of pregnancy).  The media microorganism was hearty and it readily converted facts into a smelly and somewhat toxic paste for the public.  Then FM radio emptied the AM bands, and in a fight for survival, the amplitude airwaves turned to talk.

The media ecosystem was forever altered.

This cannot be ignored.  Some surveys indicate that American’s think of themselves politically as slightly right of center, whereas university studies have quantified that the old media is largely left.  The slightly conservative citizenry knew they were being brought bogus bulletins and broadcasts, but lacked a cheap means for promoting alternative insights.  Center-right mavens discovered the empty and inexpensive AM bands, and there they found their own idyllic pond.  A new bug was born and it soon evolved into an organism that stole food from the old organisms.

Such is the nature of ecosystems.  Small, furry mammals have better survival odds than dinosaurs when their ecosystem suddenly changes.

The funny thing about people and other organisms is that genetic code is very unique for each individual.  Old media may be to the left of Mao and talk radio may be to the right of Attila, but every audience member is their own species.  Both of the primarily political parties, and the old media are found of false dualities:  left vs. right, Republican vs. Democrat, sane vs. Chuck Schumer.  Such bogus bifurcation is a natty narrative; simple yet entirely insufficient.

Next, the Internet became universal, and the media ecosystem suddenly changed again with the influx of several billion new bacteria.  You.

Old media microbes are vanishing as if the body politic just received a double cheek full of antibiotics.  Network news programs have falling ratings, accelerated to breakneck speeds by Diane Sawyer (ABC needs to get their money back on that failed investment).  Some 24 hour news channels are evaporating in a cloud of their own boorish ineptitude (that would be MSNBC and their gracious and unbiased hosts Keith “Ag School” Oberman and Chris “Sciatica” Matthews).  Newspapers, caught between high per-unit costs and declining ad revenues, are going bankrupt faster than politician morals.  Food in the media ecosystem is being swallowed by the ravenous new species, internetum upsetium.

Now the original media bacilli wants a new food source.  You.

An odd collection of voices are rising with the abhorrent suggestion that the government bail-out the old media.  Since the media’s primary mission is to investigate the government, The People ratified The Bill of Rights with the intent of separating government and press.  For a couple of centuries, the two constantly fought and denigrated one another when not copulating.  It was an ugly but semi-functional relationship.  Like a horny lad, the government attempted to romance and set up residence in the media’s drawers.  Like a young lass, the media teased the government, letting it cop the occasional literary feel while getting a free ride with insider info.  The rest of the time was spent in antagonistic reprisal, which largely keep them off the streets and out of trouble.  Now the older media is dying off, and some think the right response is to arrange marriage between the troubling government and media teens.

We all know how well teenage shotgun marriages work out.

As is often the case, false woes are erected in order to panic the populace.  Some claim that without local newspapers, there will be no checks on local government.  Oddly local weekly newspapers, ones that still have plenty of advertisers, conduct some of the better investigative journalism in the modern era.  Add in local television, whistle blowers, and the new legions of internet enabled part-time investigators, and there appears to be plenty of compensation.  What reporters are really worried about is the pay cuts they’ll take to work for the weeklies.

Journalist fearing breadlines is understandable and forgivable.  What isn’t are the anti-intellectuals called “progressives” who actively promote government funded – and hence, controlled – media.  No less than The Nation (and there are none less than that rag) have called for $60 billion in newspaper resurrection and other forms of corporate welfare.  In the name of “quality journalism”, as opposed to the type you create and consume, they incorrectly assumed that a lack of major media means a lack of journalism.

As noted above, a lack of major media means a lack of center-left hack reporting.  In other words, The Nation seeks to keep their philosophical mouthpiece in place.  It is difficult to push a leftist agenda when The Nation is one of it’s few remaining voices, and one I suspect is falling as fast as newspapers.  It is even harder when the center-right populace, outfitted for information and furiously blogging their fingers to bony nubs, routinely contradicts The Nation’s weekly waste.

Despite some short-term shortcomings, more voices and more investigators means better journalism.  If nothing else, the Internet cross connects data, making it easy for even inebriated reporters (forgive the redundancy) to find information.  Many journalists admit to reading the Drudge Report every morning to triangulate what is important to know that day.  With several million perpetually publishing people, many experts in their own fields and many with insider information, news outlets have a greater scope of information than they had before, and their reporting is fact checked by the public.  The American media ecosystem is not dying – it is changing and getting stronger.

Everybody is the media.  Now get to work.

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This entry was posted by Guy Smith on Monday, March 15th, 2010 at 4:00 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.