So it Might Be a Big Mistake to Write about The Media in These Supercharged Times
Brad Pitt as Dr. Fauci
But Right Now I Find Myself Feeling the Need to Know More Acutely
I Am Allergic to Politics and the Media
You should know this before I get started. I tend to be allergic to politics and what I’m calling, The Media. Part of it is all the drama, (rolls eyes). Part of it is that I often feel manipulated in these arenas. I have a tendency to believe that I’m not getting quality info, and that makes it hard to make good decisions. So I break out in a metaphysical rash and avoid both of them as much as possible. Don’t get me wrong, I vote. I read. I participate in our democracy, but ewwww.
So despite my allergy, I find myself consuming more of The Media’s output in these corona-times. Try as I might, I can’t avoid the sound of the president’s voice as he holds his daily briefings. I can’t not see the headlines making fun of him for what he says or doesn’t. And there are the daily zillion hot takes and insta-punditry happening 24/7. But I tune in anyway, because I still have a need to know.
What’s That Sound?
It’s a low moaning sound. I hear a lot of moaning in and via The Media. Politicians moan that The Media is against them. And it seems to me that each generation of politician thinks that The Media is out to get them and that this is new and that no other generation of politicians has had to deal with this level of nastiness. And The Media itself seems to have taken on some whine-y tones too. There’s much complaining going back and forth, and maybe some people love it. It punches up the show with drama, right?! Ugh, I’m starting to feel itchy again.
This is not a new problem. When liberals are in charge, they complain of vast right wing conspiracies. When conservatives are in charge they complain that the liberal media is out to get them. Certainly the complaining about The Media has been a consistent song that’s been sung for at least a couple of generations.
Antagonism On Purpose
Perhaps this is by design— not the whining and complaining, but the antagonism. Isn’t it the purpose of The Media to challenge government? We sometimes refer to The Media as the fourth estate. And it seems to me, that a free press in a democracy is meant to be a kind of buffer between the power and the person. It’s meant to be a defense from an overbearing government’s trespass into the domains of families and individuals. It’s meant to be a shield. We said no to King George. We designed a government with separated powers (legislative, judicial, and executive), with checks and balances on purpose. And this purpose was to do our best to protect people from the abuse of power. In the same way, a fourth estate is meant to preserve the sanctity of family and person.
So does this mean things are right after all? Could this be the way it is supposed to be? As I see it, a free press is meant to serve by informing the public and by challenging government and governors. But I am uneasy. Have we lost a free press? I’m not saying that the government is controlling media as happens in China. But something has happened.
CNN Happened
A claim can be made that this is all CNN’s fault. And I mean to be a bit cheeky, but I don’t mean to say that this is a left or a liberal problem. If Fox had been first, we’d have the same issue. The dawn of the cable era witnessed the birth of the 24 hour news cycle. We connected the cables to our TVs and we accelerated the creation of the news as an industry. We’ve chosen an industry instead of an estate. Maybe because ESPN and HGTV were bundled, we just couldn’t resist.
The Paper Didn’t Happen
Well, I guess I really blame the death of the paper. People don’t read anymore. (Not true, but true-ish, right?) I suppose printed news was already pressured by televised news, but they seemed to coexist. We all watched it on TV, and then read about it the next morning. This seemed to work. Televised immediacy brought us the happening. Printed analysis brought the why and how of it. And then the internet. Here’s a graph of what happened next:
Newspaper Revenue 1980-2020
A totally made up and non scientific graph that is somehow still true. It may also be true-ish for Walkman purchases, AOL users, and Beanie Baby Collecters…
Clicks and Likes Happened
In an effort to survive the revenue-carnage created by the internet, print media and journalism had to change. This further accelerated the shift from estate to industry. And this new industry was based on clicks and likes. All of us got to vote on what we wanted to see, hear, and read. I don’t have time to go into it, but in my mind Facebook is a nearly criminal enterprise. (I guess google that—or better yet, DuckDuckGo.com it, because they won’t track you). Facebook’s quest for engagement created algorithms that amplified news as industry... For more, you gotta read my man Ben Thomson at Stratechery.
Op/Ed Punditry Sound Bites
It seems that we now have an industry that I’m calling The Media. It is tuned to create op/ed punditry sound bites and little else. Maybe that’s an overly harsh criticism of the state of things, I don’t know. I’m saying this as an observer and as a user. I think we are missing something. We deserve more than this, and we’ve got to find a way forward. Lord help us pivot towards a journalism that functions like an estate.