My Idea for change.gov: Jumpstart a media revolution
Here's my suggestion for the citizens briefing book on change.gov:
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Here's my idea.Everyone Go vote for it if you think it's a good Idea and be sure to recommend this as well!
The newspaper industry has been having problems over the years, and the economic colapse has hastened it's demise. These days people get their news from two sources, the Cable Networks(AKA the MSM) and blogs. The MSM is absolutly terrible. Just look at the past 8 years. The MSM was asleep at the switch, and to this day continues to focus on superficial fluff. It's tightly controlled by the washington establishment, which is one of the reasons why it's making such a big deal about "forgiving and forgetting" all the horrible crimes of the Bush administration.
The blogs are better, but they don't have nearly the resources they need to do real, independent journalism.
Thanks to the internet, anyone can publish whatever they want, but bloggers can't afford to send people into war zones and things like that. And even the fact that media has to be profitable in terms of selling ads and as entertainment means that it will be hard to cover things in depth.
The collapse of newspapers means lots of great writers and journalists will be out of work.
I think the government should setup a grant program for people to start blogs and produce their own media. It would be vitally important that the government not pick and choose projects based on ideology, in order to protect freedom of speech. There would need to be some transparent metric (perhaps something as simple as page views, or people vote through a website on how to divide the money)
The for-profit media model has been bad for America. Help create a new media environment with the goal of informing the public.
Also, this model could be applied to artwork and music as opposed to stricter copyright controls that benefit middle men, the government could levy a tax and then let people pick and choose what artists their tax dollars would go too.
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I like this idea. It offers something constructive and proactive (I hate that overused word) to do than just bellyaching about the degradation of the fifth estate. Rec'd.
January 15, 2009 4:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
What's that matter with that? Your idea rocks.
Have you also noticed that it is harder to get into the newspapers on line. They want a hundred bucks a year to read their stuff.
And there are more bloggers on MSNBC than news people, at least on some days.
I am sure this is the way it is going to go, on the web. Threads and links. Cuts research down greatly.
Good post.
January 15, 2009 4:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Your post, while overall OK, contains one thing I need to address: The "MSM" is controlled by the accounting people at the parent companies.
They respect one thing: Ratings. Ratings equal advertiser dollars, and are thus the grail. (Never forget, TV is an advertising medium, not an information or entertainment medium.) Natalee Holloway, OJ, and Britney are all there because people tune in. Put foreign news on, they switch channels. Quickly, and this is verifiable, as a cable company can track it down to which block (and even where within the block) someone enters or leaves. Here is a Clive Barnes quote worth reading about this very matter:
Newspapers are dying. They no longer belong in this discussion. Sad but true - their business model is obsolete.
January 15, 2009 6:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
I am having problems signing in to the briefing book site to vote for your idea. Been having problems all afternoon. I see also that my blog has been removed from the reader's posts list. Hmm.
I will try again later.
January 15, 2009 6:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
There's no point. The government would give money to conservatives too, to start blogs full of misinformation.
January 15, 2009 9:49 PM | Reply | Permalink