Technology and Media

[Pekka]

It seems to me, that the more access we have to information, the less we know about current events. This really is weird, it's supposed to be the other way.

Ever since the NEWS turned into entertainment and a money machine, they gained their own extra interest and formed a separate entity. But it was still a bit new so I guess some journalists still had an integrity.

Now, anyone can do news. People, especially in free countries with the best resources and access to all information are dumbfounded. It didn't lead to more information, a comprehensive view, read the facts and decide yourself. It has rather gone into choosing the news you like and disregarding all the other resources.

What's even more worrying is that most people do not recongize it. They say they read another paper too, that is against their ideology. This sentence has so many mistakes when it comes to being informed that I don't know if I should cry, puke or laugh.

People have already chosen what they want to hear. And some people prolly have something against this message as well. It doesn't fit their view of the world. Furthermore most people do not admit to themselves that they are biased. Everyone is biased, that's just a fact. It's like an alcoholic denying they have a problem.

People do not recognize facts from opinions anymore. I truly think when it comes to information and current events, people are going backwards and not forward. And as such, they let their decisions and thinking be affected more and more by opinions rather than facts. And this is not a healthy development.

[Pekka]

I mean here's the development.....

For example in China, basically all media is still responsible to the communist party. Before, only state papers could be published, and basically it was communist propaganda. But now, there are permits to do magazines, radio shows, TV.. they even have 60 minutes version of their own, and Chinese politicians watch it carefully, because they understand the POWER of that medium.. it could make them or break them, and basically alter their decisions sometimes based on that.

The party tries to control as much as possible, but the recent explosion of media is so vast, that it's virtually impossible. Media, especially papers still try to uphold some rules, such as avoiding taboos.. those would be the leadership of the party being criticized and .. for example the issue of Taiwan. It is rather avoided, and the party can basically shut you down.

But the amount of papers is huge, subscribers are all over, so what you have is these journalists testing their limits. THey want to test their limits. Many of them want to write about Taiwan. Many of them want to debate the status of the party. Sometimes they slip something in. The damn is starting to break slowly but steadily. They understand what they're dealing with. The media is definitely not some kind of unified front keeping the appearances. It merely understands that the party can make their lives difficult, so they do it subtly and slowly, testing their limits every now and then.

Radio shows are even more brave. They take incoming calls, people can tell what's up.

The point is, they are breaking the limits and breaking taboos, and in the next decade or two, who knows.

In West, the media is trying to unify more, get into .. some kind of front. They're not breaking free and writing what they want and according to what is journalism. They'd rather talk about something else here, or just 'go with the positive'. or 'Go with the negative'. What ever. Or go with the left, go with the right.. but let's not break too far apart.

This is the exact opposite, and all I can tell is that we will be swapping medias soon with China if there's no integrity and meaning, and that pressure always comes from grass roots, that is the readers, or the ones who refuse to read it.