Irises
1 week ago
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Preamble to the United States Constitution
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Journalism and Free Trade
The state of journalism is this: readers are getting their news from a much wider variety of sources and increasingly for free. As a result, the mainstream media is suffering financially. In response, they have been downsizing their journalists and fact-checkers in order to provide a cheaper, all-be-it poorer, product (i.e. to ensure that the company shareholders are still making money). The public doesn't care. In fact, they almost seem to cherish the cheaper product. And what is the cheaper product? Well, since there is fewer time for gathering facts, mainstream news sources focus more on sensationalism and opinions. Worse, the opinions are presented in such a way so as to seem factual. Since there isn't time or resources to fact check or research, then the focus is less on the facts behind any particular issue, and more on the horse race or what each side said.
This trajectory for mainstream media totally parallels the fate of American manufacturing over the last 15 years. As jobs have been shipped overseas in search of cheap labor to maximize corporate profits, product quality has deteriorated. Sure, my coffee pot and DVD player were pretty cheap, but they'll only last 2-4 years. I bought my parents a VCR in 1986 and it still works. No one will be able to say that about a 2010 DVD player in 2020, much less 2034. Unfortunately the American citizen (known today as the American "consumer") doesn't give a damn. They'll buy something and replace it every other year because it was half the price of the old one that lasted ten years. As a result, we have been in an economic spiral, with the quality of goods getting worse and worse, and people (consumers) increasingly less willing to pay more for products (not to mention the lost jobs and lower wages!). Therefore, we are basically locking high-quality manufacturing out of the American market. As a result, it is impossible for American manufacturing to return to the U.S.
Do you see the parallel with journalism? The more American's get used to crappy products (e.g. a poorly made shirt or Glen Beck), the more they depend upon them. I'd love to say there is potential to rebuild American investigative journalism, but I don't think it's going to happen. American's are increasingly presented with simple "this or that" descriptions of issues that are much more complex. And they increasingly like it, because it's hard to think through complex issues. [And the way journalism is now presented (simple "this or that" scenarios) directly leads to the bitter partisanship we see in Washington.] It appears that we're going to be increasingly stuck listening to people argue instead of hearing the facts to draw our own informed conclusions. Unfortunately, many of us are going to be unemployed and will have plenty of time to "consume" this new factless journalism.
Note: Of course, I'm writing this in the blogosphere, where many see the future of journalism. I obviously think the blogs play a very new, unique and quality role, but not as a replacement for professional, independent journalism with resources to travel to Bagdad or to spend two months or more investigating a story.
This trajectory for mainstream media totally parallels the fate of American manufacturing over the last 15 years. As jobs have been shipped overseas in search of cheap labor to maximize corporate profits, product quality has deteriorated. Sure, my coffee pot and DVD player were pretty cheap, but they'll only last 2-4 years. I bought my parents a VCR in 1986 and it still works. No one will be able to say that about a 2010 DVD player in 2020, much less 2034. Unfortunately the American citizen (known today as the American "consumer") doesn't give a damn. They'll buy something and replace it every other year because it was half the price of the old one that lasted ten years. As a result, we have been in an economic spiral, with the quality of goods getting worse and worse, and people (consumers) increasingly less willing to pay more for products (not to mention the lost jobs and lower wages!). Therefore, we are basically locking high-quality manufacturing out of the American market. As a result, it is impossible for American manufacturing to return to the U.S.
Do you see the parallel with journalism? The more American's get used to crappy products (e.g. a poorly made shirt or Glen Beck), the more they depend upon them. I'd love to say there is potential to rebuild American investigative journalism, but I don't think it's going to happen. American's are increasingly presented with simple "this or that" descriptions of issues that are much more complex. And they increasingly like it, because it's hard to think through complex issues. [And the way journalism is now presented (simple "this or that" scenarios) directly leads to the bitter partisanship we see in Washington.] It appears that we're going to be increasingly stuck listening to people argue instead of hearing the facts to draw our own informed conclusions. Unfortunately, many of us are going to be unemployed and will have plenty of time to "consume" this new factless journalism.
Note: Of course, I'm writing this in the blogosphere, where many see the future of journalism. I obviously think the blogs play a very new, unique and quality role, but not as a replacement for professional, independent journalism with resources to travel to Bagdad or to spend two months or more investigating a story.
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