Old media paternalism is dead. Can we take care of ourselves?
[W]e have in this country two big television networks, NBC and CBS. We have two news magazines, Newsweek and Time. We have two wire services, AP and UPI. We have two pollsters, Gallup and Harris. We have two big newspapers–the Washington Post and the New York Times. They’re all so damned big they think they own the country.
If LBJ were still around today, he might be happy to know:
- After an emergency loan from a Mexican billionaire was not enough, The NY Times announced plans to layoff 100 reporters last week.
- “Nobody knows if they’ll have a job by the holidays” at the AP
- Time plans to layoff however many employees adds up to their $100 million shortfall
- The Washington Post lost $143 million dollars in the first half of 2009
- UPI doesn’t even exist (was purchased by Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church in 2000)
Yes, LBJ, things changed. The old media aristocracy has fallen. In it’s place: the internet and cable TV. Media consumption is no longer a three course meal served on schedule, but self-made snacks served up on-demand.
Apple has become the entree du jour, prefixing its all its media consumption products with an “i”– connoting this new self service reality. With the flick of a finger, one can easily filter out influences that might be too foreign, difficult to understand or just plain boring. This proliferation of personal choice can have the effect of stymieing our own intellectual development; we no longer need to listen to anyone but those who confirm our own psychological needs.
Old media has caught on to this. In response to the new consumer power, the besieged moguls are fighting back by giving consumers more and more of what they want: junk food for an insatiable ego. The rise of opinion-based programming on cable TV is evidence of this. Fox “News” has built itself around right-wing pundit personalities, while MSNBC has responded by taking a stake out on the left. Meanwhile, middle-of-the-road CNN saw its lowest ratings in decades.
When left to their own devises, people tend to consumer media that confirms and even amplifies their personal preferences (see my blog post about YouTube ratings). It’s becoming a much more personal experience. As further evidence of this new paradigm, Yahoo is currently running a $100 million ad campaign around the world that has one message: it’s all about you!
So the power of the old media has been transferred to us. In many ways this seems like a good thing – more voice to more people, the very basis of our democracy. But is this choice and freedom uncovering a strain in human nature we’d rather not face up to?
The old media aristocracy functioned a bit like a benevolent dictator. It used its monopolistic power to extol journalistic standards like truth, accuracy and trust. It was far from perfect, leaving many voices out. And thanks to new media, niche issues like gay rights are becoming increasingly recognized. But at the same time, so are problems like racism and xenophobia permeating the media. And in place of the paternal void, consumers are increasingly gravitating to rogue media voices.
I witnessed the tea party protests at the National Mall last month. Never have I seen a scarier political sight in my life. Egged on by Fox News pundit Glenn Beck, angry white marchers descended on Washington to spout ugly racist slogans. One older black man told me he had not felt so much hate since the 1960s.
No longer bonded to paternal media overlords, one might argue that we’re in a state of nature. This unprecedented freedom of information may be the ultimate test of the old Locke vs. Hobbes debate.
