Then there is blogging. It turns out that the TV news is watched on average by those around 60 years old. Newspapers suffer similarly. The sun is setting on the old press and rising in areas such as talk radio and internet news sources. The most common source amongst the youth? Blogs. 12 percent of Americans (29 million) now claim to get their political news from blogs. 12,000 blogs are created everyday. That is huge. (see story at: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,155034,00.html
This is of particular interest to me for two reasons, and I thought it might interest you.
But let me take you back: I’ve often pondered the beginning of the great country, the United States of America. Those colonists loyal to England vs. those in favor of the new free country fired volleys of words to win the hearts and minds of their fellow citizens. There was a great printing effort, letters published in papers and pamphlets that everyone read. The famous Federalist papers, for example, followed this format. This sharing of information and dialogue engaged enough hearts to help forge the new nation.
Then in our day the news and topics became delivered to us not by our fellow citizens, but by huge news corporations with resources Joe public didn‘t have. And we came to trust them. Now that many of these huge world media icons often set forth their own preferences and negative bias, I think the internet has given us an alternative news environment which is more like the original situation in the Colonies. News is again passed from informed citizen to citizen, not this time by letters in the town’s papers, but on the web pages of multiple internet communities, bringing the discourse back into the hands of the common public.
I like that because first, the good things, such as the great successes here in Iraq, not covered in traditional media can be found (on the internet). And there is a need for good news!! Secondly, the average citizen is able to become actively involved in informing themselves and others, rather than passively being spoon-fed by what those TV icons choose to share. And that is good!
Hence my mentioning the advent of the blog to you, for your consideration, now that I’ve stumbled into it: it’s a force in our world.
3 comments:
I ran across your blog a couple of weeks ago. It immediately caught my eye. My son-in-law is a marine stationed in Iraq and I really enjoy your perspective. I'm a water plant and a wastewater plant operator and I toyed with the idea of working over there for a year myself.
I hated to see those 0 comments on such a well written blog. I just wanted you to know there are people out here enjoying your work.
Thanks,
lejnd
Ernest,
I think you're right. News means something to people, when it comes from people they know and trust, and for some reason, we find ourselves not trusting the big media.
I know that I haven't watched the network news in three or four years, choosing to get my news from Talk Radio.
I've noticed how the media claims to be neutral, but they jump on liberal ideas and ignore conservative ones.
Just so you know, I like reading your blogs and find it very interesting.
I would be just as interested in knowing what the typical Iraqi citizen thinks about the daily deaths of their neighbors.
Me too, Joe, Me too!
And thank you, Mr Lejnd, for your kind comments.
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