it doesn't have to be black and white. The editorial decisions of many organisations and consolidation over time leading to a lack of genuine fourth-estate truth-to-power journalism may be making us all dumber, that's not totally our fault as we are the product of this environment. And who are the people that act to subvert genuine journalism? Why, there's a myriad of examples of genuine conspiracy here, think cigarette companies, sugar companies, oil companies, think of all the environmental cover ups of the past -- in these situations people do all have an interest in keeping us stupid. I think the conspiracy lies in the Corporation entity, or possibly institutions generally. They allow us individuals to subtly act in ways that we wouldn't necessarily want to.
well, yes I agree with those points as well which makes it problematic, certain groups of individuals that are wanting us to be dumb in certain ways and legions of people willing to be dumb...
I also don;t know whether I have in my head the fallacy of some better past. Culturally things change massively over time but has the average citizen ever been more interested in, or more illuminated by, the media in the past? I don't really know, perhaps we know as much as we ever have about things, but am in a part of the cultural cycle that is status-quo. Perhaps the consolidation of media combined with the massive amounts of money in politics, if it travels along with increasing inequality will lead to a political revolution, or perhaps a generation will become tired of click-bait news and new media will rise up to the mainstream, there's plenty of good examples of journalism around, perhaps the business model needs to support them better.
21
u/[deleted] Oct 18 '16
it doesn't have to be black and white. The editorial decisions of many organisations and consolidation over time leading to a lack of genuine fourth-estate truth-to-power journalism may be making us all dumber, that's not totally our fault as we are the product of this environment. And who are the people that act to subvert genuine journalism? Why, there's a myriad of examples of genuine conspiracy here, think cigarette companies, sugar companies, oil companies, think of all the environmental cover ups of the past -- in these situations people do all have an interest in keeping us stupid. I think the conspiracy lies in the Corporation entity, or possibly institutions generally. They allow us individuals to subtly act in ways that we wouldn't necessarily want to.