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Baraka_Guru · 10-21-2009, 04:55 AM

Well, when you consider the various types of media to choose from to get your news--television, radio, newspapers, magazines, various Internet sources--and then you throw in the means of obtaining information about virtually any topic after it's no longer "news"--books, films, plus the aforementioned types of media--you will notice certain patterns and differences between each.

The thing to realize is that each of these competes amongst themselves in addition to indirect competition such as more pure forms of entertainment or virtually anything that takes time away from ingesting news.

With all these factors combined, you still have the eternal problem of maintaining audiences and making money. The evolution of television is what this is all about, and the news component of that is of no exception. It's just like the "consumer news" segments you see, where all it is, is a promo for various consumer goods.

Television was always a highly commercial medium. Wasn't it invented with that in mind? Television is a medium for delivering commercial messages, and the programming is used to attract viewers to that. You could argue that it's the other way around, but either way, the two are necessarily interconnected more so, I would argue, than any other medium.

This is actually pretty telling of our times---a time where newspapers are "dying" and magazines seem to be following suit--where it's hard to tell if anyone reads books anymore, or if they're merely accessories.

We live in the information age of the Internet and reality television, and we have the attention span of fleas. Tully, this is an interesting observation you've made, but are you surprised about it?

10-21-2009, 04:55 AM	#3 (permalink)
Baraka_Guru warrior bodhisattva Super Moderator Location: East-central Canada	Well, when you consider the various types of media to choose from to get your news--television, radio, newspapers, magazines, various Internet sources--and then you throw in the means of obtaining information about virtually any topic after it's no longer "news"--books, films, plus the aforementioned types of media--you will notice certain patterns and differences between each. The thing to realize is that each of these competes amongst themselves in addition to indirect competition such as more pure forms of entertainment or virtually anything that takes time away from ingesting news. With all these factors combined, you still have the eternal problem of maintaining audiences and making money. The evolution of television is what this is all about, and the news component of that is of no exception. It's just like the "consumer news" segments you see, where all it is, is a promo for various consumer goods. Television was always a highly commercial medium. Wasn't it invented with that in mind? Television is a medium for delivering commercial messages, and the programming is used to attract viewers to that. You could argue that it's the other way around, but either way, the two are necessarily interconnected more so, I would argue, than any other medium. This is actually pretty telling of our times---a time where newspapers are "dying" and magazines seem to be following suit--where it's hard to tell if anyone reads books anymore, or if they're merely accessories. We live in the information age of the Internet and reality television, and we have the attention span of fleas. Tully, this is an interesting observation you've made, but are you surprised about it? __________________ Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing? —Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön Humankind cannot bear very much reality. —From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot Last edited by Baraka_Guru; 10-21-2009 at 04:58 AM..