For everyone out there who either:
a) enjoys solid funny writing
OR
b) is interested in the effect of the media on its listeners
I would highly recommend an article in yesterday's Washington Post Magazine called "Cruel and Usual Punishment". It's by Gene Weingarten who is a very good writer and, I think, an American Studies student at heart. (He also wrote this article which is one of my favorites in the whole world and this one which is actually applicable.)
Anyway, I thought the article sort of ties in with our class because it speaks to the way that too much media (in this case punditry) actually detracts from the quality of the media and makes the public immune to it.
I think that this phenomenon occurs a lot when it comes to blogs and other easy-to-create online media. There are so many blogs out there that it is hard for one to become super popular. A lot of times a blog will have a specific readership that it is going for. So blog readers can be spread thin over many different blogs. And the poorly done blogs often disillusion internet-goers from picking random blogs to follow without any credentials. The overwhelming noise of blog chatter can be a big turnoff so that no one really cares anymore.
It seems today to be a problem with too much information...
No comments:
Post a Comment