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by mjevans 405 days ago
In the US the 'press' / media is supposed to be a quasi 4th branch of government (society by the people, for the people).

Such organizations are important for the voting public to remain informed and thus elect with an informed choice.

... It would also not surprise me if ~25-35% of the US population 'did not trust PBS / NPR' because they didn't like what they heard and thus preferred to disbelieve the sources.
1 comments
Workaccount2 405 days ago
Unfortunately, the media is put in a position of desperate survival mode with the advent of the attention economy. Which has unsurprisingly lead to the "reality-TV-ification" of TV news, and the lazy "here's-what-is-happening-according-to-twitter-journalism" of print media.
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mjevans 403 days ago
Cable news networks - which had to fill whole days with news, sort of started that trend.

It wasn't always quite that bad, it used to be the same stuff repeated for people in venues like lounges at airports or restaurants that wanted to cater to business crowds.

Then around 2001 there was that terrorist attack on the US ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks ). Networks did 24/7 'news' coverage; ever more of a spectacle as time dragged on. In recollection their need for attention, to excite and draw in eyeballs, probably helped with the implicit goal of 'terrorism' to instill terror.

Rather than behaving as rational adults, digesting a negative event, reflecting on what could be done differently ( do not negotiate with terrorists, do not remain passive sheep on an airplane, and FFS lock the cockpit doors ); everyone 'blinked' and caved. Freedoms and liberty were traded for news as entertainment, security theater, and excuses to enter wars 'on terrorism' with unclear goals and objectives.

The 'Internet' probably didn't help in offering a cheaper and supposedly 'better targeted' venue for ads. Other than informative ads (X exists, it can do Y), I find the entertainment focus to be intellectual junk food and noise against the signal. It would probably be a public good if that were heavily regulated.

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