Jeff Jarvis’s blog post “The Press
Becomes the Press Sphere” in all honestly slightly confused me. Now I interpreted his overall message being
that what is interesting, what is “news”, is no longer up to the journalist to
determine. That now falls towards the
public. Jarvis admits is own
apprehension at this concept, but acknowledges the reality of it. In the past news was told, and morally
judged, by the journalists. Stories
viewed as inappropriate or morally questionable were left out and discarded. That is not the case today. In short, Jarvis states that the public now
holds the reigns, the “keys to the gate”, on what is acceptable and what is
not. The journalists are responsible for asking the questions, as they have
long since done, that the people want to know.
Their “default” if you would.
But what
does all this really mean? Is this idea even actualized? To be sure, today’s media reports on stories
that 50 years ago wouldn’t even be considered for publishing. However, there are stories that still are
ignored. But such cases are certainly
not the majority. The idea that our
media is now becoming more publicized can be seen just from the range of
stories reported. We no longer focus on
politics and world events alone. No,
today we are interested in the daily lives of celebrities, the trends and
fashions of the day, and the rare lighthearted report. Politics and world events have not gone away,
no, the news has simply expanded. And I
believe that Jarvis touches on this, the news today is what the public wants it
to be. If the public wishes something to
be told, it will be told. “Give the
people what the people want.” No? But I
cannot help but chuckle a bit, since when have people known what they want?
No comments:
Post a Comment