I don’t know how many of you have been following Occupy Wall Street over the past month or so, but as a journalist I can tell you, this is a clear example of how something has gone terrible wrong with the way the traditional news media is deciding what stories they deem “newsworthy” to the public.
Journalists who are covering the events in New York City are now finding themselves under attack by law enforcement officers. A Fox New York camera man was pepper sprayed and a reporter was struck by a baton in the melee. These are NOT the stories being shown on our nightly news.
For years, the traditional media has been accused of being too liberal—when, in essence, that’s not the case at all. What the general public fails to realize is advertising dollars dictate what will be shown and how far the news media will go or not go in presenting “just the facts.”
The media has conditioned us to believe that what they present to us are the important stories: Natalee Holloway, Amanda Knox, etc. Do you think the Tea Party would’ve ever become a force had it not been given so much media coverage?
The fact of the matter is the vision of the “traditional media” has become blurred over the last decade. That’s why social media, now more than ever, has not only become relevant but IMPORTANT.
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So true. What’s encouraging is that audiences are becoming increasingly fed up and distrustful of mainstream media and it’s because social media has in so many instances brought us the facts faster and more accurately than the “traditional” media. The Arab Spring event is just one example.
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Interesting take on things Bev. I’ve always thought that the media went for whatever was the “sexy” story of the moment, which is why I always thought they rarely reported on missing black children. It never occurred to me that media outlets would serve news they believed their advertisers wanted on TV. Maybe it explains why one of our local news outlets always seems to report on animal stories.
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Those audiences are becoming progressively more fed up and disbelieving of ordinary media and it’s because social media has in so many instances bring us the particulars faster and more precisely than the traditional media.
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