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Alternate media

by: Lucy Edwards

Wed Jun 01, 2011 at 13:13:42 PM EDT


Anyone who has been a Hamster for any length of time has read and probably participated in some discussion of the shortcomings of our media, here in NH and nationally.  We know that there is a serious information shortage going on, and we suspect it has a lot to do with the corporate control of the media.

But the question always comes back to how do we create a new media, an alternate media, that actually might get read by enough low-information citizens to make a difference.  

Lucy Edwards :: Alternate media
That question was raised again in my mind by this piece by Josh Marshall discussing the growth of TPM (Talking Points Memo):

If you have a web-native news and business model, you can build a news organization more or less from scratch and grow fast without big infusions of outside capital. And it's not just our staff. Our audience has always been key to our editorial model. I cannot think of a major story we've been on where audience input (of various kinds) hasn't been a crucial part of the equation. More recently, reader amplification through social media has been one of the core drivers of audience growth. Sustained engagement with readers is the core of our success as a company, across the spectrum from news tips to revenue models.

This doesn't solve the problem, but I suspect like so many of our current problems, there is no magic bullet, but many varied solutions, many of which will have to be implemented to some scale in order to overcome the predominance of TV and what is left of the newspapers.  Also, I suspect this is a problem whose solution may require the passing of age cohorts who vote in large numbers and simply will not move to the internet (except perhaps to forward quantities of right wing e-mails to their long-suffering offspring).

One other model I have been involved with, as one of the many volunteers that have kept it going for the past 5 years, is The Forum.  If you are not familiar with it, take a look.  

The mission of The Philbrick-James Forum is to provide a source for news and current information, and an outlet for the sharing of events, opinion, and creative expression through an interactive web-based newspaper supplemented by periodic print issues. An easily accessible source of information and a venue for input by the citizenry will encourage community involvement and identity.
The Forum's Pledge:

- To report the news with accuracy and objectivity, and treat people with respect.
- To provide content to help citizens make informed decisions about local issues.
- To facilitate community debate.
- To furnish an opportunity for creative expression.
- To correct our errors in a timely manner.

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Alternate media | 4 comments
interesting (0.00 / 0)

Good stuff.  

To know what we are up against, you should read (0.00 / 0)
http://www.rollingstone.com/po...

The media are in thrall to Roger Ailes and his cohort of disinformation. Even those media entities they don't directly control are affected because of the need to compete for audience attention.  Time is of the essence.  There are only 24 hours in a day and, no matter how short you make the segments of information, the number you can fit in is definitely limited.

However, sight and sound are just two of the portals and, it seems, don't necessarily co-ordinate in a single individual.  That is, some people are more susceptible to aural information; others to visual. I suspect the visual appeal of FOX has nothing to do with the content and everything to do with the stylized barbie and ken-like presenters. They cater to their audience with "we report, you decide" by giving them something they don't even want-- making decisions.  So, in effect, it's a one-way relationship that requires no thought.  Whether the mindless actually go out to vote is another matter and probably doesn't matter.  The importance of FOX lies in what effect it has on other media outlets, which it controls indirectly. As usual, the target is not the target. That's the thing about asocial deceivers. It's almost impossible to divine what they are up to because the object is power and power is manifest by destroying someone or something, regardless of what it is.

Ailes and his cohorts aren't malevolent. They are asocial predators.
In that sense, the predator drones are actually well named. They dispatch missiles to kill people on the ground and leave those they don't kill scared. As a society, we have not determined that scaring people is wrong. Think of that!


Scaring people (4.00 / 1)
is not something we as a society find wrong, that's for sure.  Most advertising is based on scaring us.  We aren't beautiful, handsome, sexy, healthy, rich, etc., enough...without XXX.  

[ Parent ]
The Forum is impressive (0.00 / 0)
And perhaps it is a model of bringing high quality information to citizens. If we evaluated the model we would know it works. The evaluation could serve as the foundation for replicating the model across the state. We can do this.

whp

Alternate media | 4 comments

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