It appears, based on this New York Times article, that increasing numbers of Americans are receiving their political information from online sources. It should be no surprise that newspapers are no longer the primary source for political news, especially when the internet offers free information during troubled economic times. In that sense it is easy to understand to increase of internet use pertaining to political issues. The problem appears to be the content being spread by such websites. As we discussed in class, there is a clearly a strong partisan message accompanying most political blogs and websites. Teddy Wayne, the author of this article, observed these statistics in a Pew Internet Report that is linked at the bottom of this posting. While I agree that there are a lot of strong partisan messages offered through internet sites, and a lot of pure crap as well, is this really such a concern or a surprise to anyone? And who is the New York Times to talk? They are easily one of the most biased newspapers on earth. That is not to say that they are the only one by any means, but would the newspaper really be an adequate alternative to online political education? People tend to visit sites and read papers that reflect their own ideas. They could read opposing sources to get a relatively objective look at issues, but let's face it, Americans would be less likely to buy two newspapers just to compare them than they would be to visit two websites woth the intent of doing the same thing. Maybe internet sites have an unseen perk?
http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/The-Internet-and-Campaign-2010/Summary.aspx
3 comments:
Im not sure any new source can be 100% relied upon for the entire story. There is a book by Noam Chompsky titled "Manufactured Consent". It has massive amounts of data showing the 7 filters new stories must pass through when entering the U.S. media. These stories are only told if they support a particular issue or they are altered to show the side that is acceptable. While skeptism is healthy in my book at some point it falls apon the american people to find the correct information.
I agree, Americans follow media sources that they agree with. The New York Times does have a liberal bias, but what media source doesn't. Americans have to be willing to filter out what information to get the full truth.
The reader, I hope, would be smart enough to wade through the opinion and bias and see the real story. Also the writer hopefully would not stuff the news story with his or her own opinion. I read the newspaper almost every day, mostly because its free on campus, but I can find the real story in the writers bias. I think that political blogs are worse and many articles are written on pure opinion, because the internet grants people that right.
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