Norman Mailer called the 20th Century the Century of Ego (in 1971, he may have been mostly full of crap but he was right in the most colourful way ) and used Alan Shepard golfing on the moon as an example . 20th C ,Ascending linear technology .Just off the top of my head , the early part of the century featured the ( great) Great War , the Red Baron , Lenin ,Trotsky , on to Hitler , Gen.MacArthur ( his sunglasses never did go out of style), Mao , Castro , Kennedy's (all of them), The Beatles more popular than Jesus ,Bobby Hull , Ali ( the Greatest), Wayne Gretzky (the Great One), Micheal Jordan ,Pierre Elliott T, speed , more speed , flight from Kitty Hawk to the X-15 ( the Right Stuff), and golfing on the moon , the Bomb ( The Big One ,big ego or what) , the Pill . Leaders seen from the front ,and people fallowing behind at the same time , technology aspiring to personality. These people and things could be put on Posters . Style and ego. Even smart people like Albert Einstein had a poster . ( he had the hair)
The 21 Centurynot so much , still not very old but Bill Gates , Mark Zukerberg , both Clintons as people who influenced the time , you can see a big culture shift in progress , the background of everything . This is the time of “no posters” ,Insular , seditary , asymmetrical , defensive , decelerating ,introspective ,quiet.
Our Media Toady
Invented ,Inverted Pyramid writing style 1860's ,Responsible journalism invented in the 1890's – Tabloid Journalism 1865 , radio , television created opportunities to refresh print journalism . The principles of death toll , extremes of culture , potential and future fear , the time to refresh the principals of daily reporting may be in order . Photographers that cannot spell , somethings will never change .Most will never change.
Change has always been forced ,with the advent of new media comes another threat , the threat is again clear and present.
Our guiding principles have been set over a hundred years ago . In the fine print of our journalism should read , our interests are in the extremes ,the biggest the smallest , the fastest the slowest , the youngest the oldest . We deal in things that are settled , verified in print from official or institutional sources as well as the uncertainty of the future . WE look back and also see in the present , as well scoff at the future. New things are funny to journalism . Young people wanting peace where called hippies , women wanting equality were characterized as “bra burners “ , environmentalists as “tree huggers” ,each age a different slur . Always on the wrong side of history in each culture changing era .Then always switching sides at the ten year , verified anniversary .New ages alway bring people who prodiminantly reject the age of the past generation and look forward .It is happening again.
Our readers have come to see media as a normal view , and not an extreme view that leans to the negative. Negativity is in full lean but fear no longer sells papers . Readers have been frightened too often by extreme opinion , research and isolated views that create fear . We show our readers shapes and sizes and they mistakenly compared themselves with extreme body image . They see extreme weather , violence and upheaval and somehow see danger for themselves . This media view appears as a normal world view , and there is no one to say , this is not normal . There is no disclaimer .A senior citizen's biggest fear is home invasion , a very isolated and rare occurrence. There is push back to these principles .Readers are more educated , and we are sometimes foolish with future threats.
If we see journalism as a wave , the wave is a disturbance of energy , transforming energy from one point to another . These are the extremes , both top and bottom of the wave. We report those extreme parts of waves .Our readers are continually seeing the tops and bottoms , and their view of the world becomes distorted . In journalism we rate stories as hard and soft . Hard is good story , high value , extreme and “soft” a make work , expendable , a held story.
Newspaper Journalism has found little value in “soft” stories . If the value of these mid range stories is not found our future is in peril .
We have competition , the social media has found value in many people speaking about all things in the incremental areas between the highs and lows of mainstream media coverage . These are the areas our readers live in , these are their addressees their postal codes.
The other note worthy point about the wave theory is that eventually the wave disturbance returns to normal calm . We miss that and go onto the next big wave.
Do you ever wonder why there is news in the media from Pakistan or Central America about a bus crash , killing 60 people . Do you ever wonder why someone thought this was something a reader In Winnipeg or London would need to know. Our governing principles tell us that numbers of dead determine news value .
Forty three people were killed in South Africa , that is a fact . Strikers working for a “pittance “ killed because they wanted to “double that pittance” , mining platinum , the worlds most valuable commodity. It seems the criteria should centre around why that would happen and simply not , that it did happen .
There is overwhelming evidence that the mass culture , when given the opportunity will create it's own values in information based of a less extreme view , one that allows them to recognize their own communities . The home community is distorted by the heavy concentration of “hard” news , even if it comes from a relativity small area of any city.
Looking a the highs and lows of verifiable information relating to extreme news , we are unable or unwilling to see the pathway of the wave , the area in between the high and low and the origins of
violence , poverty , politics , everyday life , put journalists at a loss that leave readers baffled .
We have experts in professional hockey but know nothing about minor hockey , we have justice experts that know nothing about crime . We know little about the communities we report on and the readers see that, and have moved on. They have created their own network of information and everyone gets to talk , even lowly photographers
Maybe time for another change in professional journalism , it might have happened already .
Topic: Another essay on the future of journalism (Read 2045 times)