posted by Boggart Blogger, 27 November 2024
It is easy for those of us in the blogosphere or alt_media arena to attack a method of delivering news that is a holdover from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and claim mainstream media is dying.
This has been apparent for years and has become more obvious since Donald Trump was re-elected as US President. News that CNN is laying off half their workforce, that MSNBC’s ratings are no longer statistically significant, the loss making Daily Telegraph is up for sale but no buyer will accept the T&Cs or that The Guardian isin financial trouble are greeted with celebratory memes.
Newspaper readership has been dropping for decades, and television news channels struggle to drum up the audience of a moderately popular YouTube channel featuring cute cat videos set to quirky music.
That’s can all be justified by citing the laws of the market. CNN, MSNBC, The Guardian – all of them – deserve to disappear. Digital communication has allowed people to undermine and overthrow decades-old propaganda outlets.
But does that mean it’s over? Is Elon Musk actually correct when he reassuringly declares on X that “YOU are the media now”.
Well the answer to that depends on whether or not you think the same forces that spent untold resources constructing this system of information control are just going to give up and go home when it starts to fail.
I mean – does anyone seriously think they would? It is more more likely is it not, that they’ll just regroup and be reborn under different banners?
Remember – newspapers and TV channels are functionaries of the establishment, not the establishment itself. For several centuries they have been crucial to the selling of ideas and agendas, but they are a voice not a brain. They’re just a tool of control, not the philosophy. And tools can easily be replaced when they wear out.
The internet has replaced television as the media now, just as television replaced radio and radio replaced print.
Threats to Free Speech
Threats to free speech and other civil rights us ordinary punters fought and shed blood for are under threat, not from the extreme right but from the liberal left. The intellectually bankrupt lefties have realised their hundred year old arguments are never going to win the battle for hearts and minds and so have moved to the position in the political spectrum once occupied by Hitler and Stalin. Many people would never dream of questioning authority; others see their interests as being served by supporting the abuse of authority, they are the ones who call the questioners 'conspiracy theorists'.
Threats to Free Speech
Legacy media is no longer THE media but it is still maintream, there are still millions of people who rely on for the information upon which they will base their opinions, on print and broadcast news. It’s likely most of them will not be following alternative journalists/podcasters/influencers online if, indeed, they’re aware of them. From my limited experience, their are few people who go beyond Google, YouTube and Facebook which, as we know, are heavily censored, closely aligned with the deep state agencies that create the naratives to which news reporting conforms, and highly suspect!
Those of us who get most of our information from the Internet will have our favourites, some of whom have massive followings, be they funded by corporations or small donors. It is up to us to use our discernment and our intuition. If we watch enough widely-differing purveyors of the news, we should be able to get the gist of what’s happening across the globe, form an opinion and be prepared to adjust it as more information comes in. In other words, we have to use both sides of our brains as we look for differing views on current affairs.
Mass media is corporate media, in that vast capital and authority among the monied clique that controls large business operations is required for broadcasting any message. To reiterate McLuhan’s misunderstood meme, which he saw as being over-misused, the above described msm is it’s own message. It is the voice of wealth-authority and as such we know “history is written by the winners” to their own benefit. So I agree with Kit, we should be wary of every content delivery flowing out of this form. Whether tributary-out influencers, fbBots, or one’s influenced neighbor rumor, awareness, calm, assessment and patience must be a constant new form of audience intelligence. But the medium is an equally important sign of the character of the delivery.
I don’t give a damn how these online personalities present themselves. To care about such trivia is as daft as being influenced by bright lights and flashy sets. There can be as much sense spoken in someone’s kitchen as a smart studio.
We all have our personal favourites many of whom will specialise in different subject matter, are journalists and/or writers, have made videos and nearly all are likely to have to have interesting guests. Yes, they have teams. the tasks would be impossible without them, but it’s easy to spot those who are manipulated behind the scenes.
One of the deciding factors when I tune into someone new is their persona – would I trust them if I met them? This is a good yardstick when choosing who to follow. And if they are now the ‘new’ mainstream, so what! That simply means they’re more prevalent.
Mass media is corporate media, in that vast capital and authority among the monied clique that controls large business operations is required for broadcasting any message. To reiterate McLuhan’s misunderstood meme, which he saw as being over-misused, the above described msm is it’s own message. It is the voice of wealth-authority and as such we know “history is written by the winners” to their own benefit.
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