saving ink

It’s very easy to blame the American media for the failure of democracy that resulted in the past eight years; I’ve done that myself many times. But that’s only grasping a glimpse of the problem, and not the whole picture.

A properly functioning democracy relies on a well-informed public; the journalistic community exists to inform that public. It’s easy to say that the public is mostly full of idiots that do not want to be informed, but that’s also looking at a fraction of the puzzle.

The real problem lies in the fact that the journalistic community is tied to the same market forces as normal businesses. It means that a journalist’ first job becomes to sell papers/get network ratings up, when it should be to fuction as a check on the government’s actions. This is an elementary failure of our society, and if it is not corrected it will lead to its downfall.

Newspapers rely on advertisers’ money to survive; television news relies on ratings. Both have been steadily losing credibility over the years as their commercial aspects have been more and more emphasized.

The Internet, meanwhile, began with a lack of credibility, but as people begin to lose faith in traditional media, it has quickly gained ground. With the comparitavely lower costs of Internet journalism, this could easily become a viable alternative with the right organizational structure that checks for credibility. The only thing that’s missing now is the right filter…