A decline in media trust equals a decline in media viewership
Ill have to agree with Jeanie that there is not one party responsible for the shift in news values, it is the fault of both the media and the public for allowing the shift from hard news to entertainment news to happen. However, as a 21 year old and a future entertainment journalist, i think that this trend is prepetuated further by the growing mistrust of the media outlets themselves. Corporate media outlets are first and foremost a business and with that comes certain agendas. If a spot about nipple covers will garner more viewers and rate higher than an update on condoleeza rice's whereabouts, then you can bet that these light, entertainment stories will continue to eat up more air time.
Another factor that is directly related with the decline of hard news viewers is what Mindich calls complacency, or the feeling of uselessness and irrelevance to the democratic process. Many young people today dont vote and admittedly dont care about politics and elections because they feel like their vote doesnt matter. This then drives them away from political or governmental news, which makes up nearly the whole newscast (except for a spot on nipple covers :)
I can easily see how many young Americans feel this way, especially after the 2000 election when al gore won the popular vote but not the electoral vote and was defeated. It leaves one wondering why even vote if what is seemingly popular to the American people can be overridden if its not popular with the "higher ups" in Washington? After that, the infamously dirty and cutthroat election of 2004 besmeared the image of the 'clean and honorable politician' and drained any remaining faith from young voters.
These two recent elections alone are enough for me to understand why many young people have abandoned the typical newscast and opted for lighter entertaining stories. Its not suprising to me that young people are becoming what Mindich calls "thin citizens", in that they often do not engage in the democratic process and "only follow the outlines of democracy."
Another factor that is directly related with the decline of hard news viewers is what Mindich calls complacency, or the feeling of uselessness and irrelevance to the democratic process. Many young people today dont vote and admittedly dont care about politics and elections because they feel like their vote doesnt matter. This then drives them away from political or governmental news, which makes up nearly the whole newscast (except for a spot on nipple covers :)
I can easily see how many young Americans feel this way, especially after the 2000 election when al gore won the popular vote but not the electoral vote and was defeated. It leaves one wondering why even vote if what is seemingly popular to the American people can be overridden if its not popular with the "higher ups" in Washington? After that, the infamously dirty and cutthroat election of 2004 besmeared the image of the 'clean and honorable politician' and drained any remaining faith from young voters.
These two recent elections alone are enough for me to understand why many young people have abandoned the typical newscast and opted for lighter entertaining stories. Its not suprising to me that young people are becoming what Mindich calls "thin citizens", in that they often do not engage in the democratic process and "only follow the outlines of democracy."
posted by Anonymous at 8:54 AM
1 Comments:
Well, I'm biased, but it's easy for me to see news quality drop and people lose interest.
People blame journalists. Journalists blame their bosses. Bosses blame CEOs and CEOs answer to investors.
When was the last time you sought out and read independent media?
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