Reply #17: Reporting USED to be about finding out what was going on and presenting that INFORMATION to [View All]

[T Wolf]

a public that otherwise would not know what was happening.

It has, for the most part, been turned into a tool of propaganda dissemination and image control by those in power. As such, it has lost the respect and support of many people. And appropriately so.

Things do change over time. Newspapers used to take it as a sacred (sorry for using that word) duty to muckrake (expose the corruption in government and commerce). They no longer do that except in the pursuit of some corporate political goal.

Print gave way to radio which gave way to television. Now the web is the media of choice for many, especially the young. It may be the saving grace (again I apologize for using a spiritual phrase) for democracy because it really cannot be controlled, though they may try to.

As the printing press allowed knowledge and information to be spread beyond the bastions of the elite, the web is serving that function now. It is what we do with it that matters. As media became more concentrated and corporate, its usefulness (for positive, progressive goals) diminished.

The democratization of communications can only be a good thing.