This is the second piece relating to the Ben Bova interview in Episode #179. I’m writing to join in on the condemnation of the media. No, I am not referring to the incredibly poor job most of them are doing with regards to the upcoming national elections (although… ah, no… some other time). No, I am referring to the media and space exploration.
The media today is not what it once was. Maybe it never was what it appeared; maybe it was just an illusion. But it seems to me there was a time within living memory when the media served as educator, mentor, critical thinker, and trusted consigliere to the masses… masses busy with living life. The media even challenged powerful groups, and held their power in check. Well, no more. The explosion of cable and Internet outlets has allowed people to search out, and said outlets to provide, exactly what each group of people wants to hear and see. Basically, the “media” has been carved into pockets that cater to reinforcing existing opinions, and not challenge anyone to think outside their comfort zone.
Where does space exploration fall into this? It’s filler. In between presenting canned stories confirming what the target audience already believes, the media will show a short video of a rocket and mention that this particular rocket holds some sort of spacecraft that in 3-7 years will yield information about a place far, far, far, far away. The really good outlets may throw in a short “this will aid in the understanding of our own world”. Then on to the latest feud between one celebrity and another with regards to a third. Sometime there is a small dog involved.
But is it the media’s fault? After all, they are a business, and circulation, viewership, and audience demographic drive their business model. Television, newspaper, and radio must cater to their audience to be able to hold them and charge their sponsors big bucks. And it is increasingly difficult to hold audiences these days if you don’t keep a close watch on Paris Hilton and her dog.
As far as space exploration, people who are already interested seek out information from many excellent sources. For instance, it is rare a major media outlet surprises me with space related news. Usually I have already heard of it from any of the sources I monitor. Heck, these days I don’t even monitor… I have alerts that flag stories for me. Unfortunately, those who do not actively seek out news are not exposed to any.
So the “media” has a problem. It may want to grab the public by the scruff of the neck, shake them a bit, and yell “Look!! Look at this!! This is important to your life and to humanity’s future!” But the public… the public can just change the channel, and listen to someone reflecting, and reinforcing, what they already believe. Worse yet, individuals within the public can get on their own soapbox, and promote whatever wacky view they came up with as a result of a few beers and reading the ads in the back of Popular Science.
Why do I still blame the media? Because most major media outlet are owned by large corporations who make a lot of money. It would be nice to see said corporations come to believe a well educated and informed public is something that is advantageous to humanity’s long-term goals. Humanity’s major long-term goal is, or should be, surviving for said long term. Based on evidence all around us, it does not seem the big media outlets share the view that an educated populace is crucial to said goal. And if you think about the fact that politicians cater to their constituents, you then begin to get a scary picture of the current state of affairs.
There are, of course, excellent efforts catering to those who what to seek them out. But their viewership is nothing compared to any given NFL game on any given Sunday. Say — that would make a good movie title! But I digress.
“What can we do, Emilio?”
The problem with news, especially those coming from television and radio, was revealed in one of your very first insights in this piece. The idea that the news branch is out to make money. I’m old enough to remember when the news branch of a network or radio station had only one goal, and that was to try and uncover the truth. Those were the days when regular programming made up the bulk of the money-making while the news branch was free to just try and see what was going on and report news — not make it or direct it.
In the days of Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, Huntley & Brinkley and with the days of McNeil and Lehr, they had one goal for the news – to uncover it and report it straight out, without commentary, without judgment and without personal bias.
True journalism and news reporting died the day cable television was born and the first 24hr news show – CNN – was created. From that day on, the news branches had to become self-sustaining, which means, they had to make money and couldn’t live off the leavings of successful network shows as they had done in the past. That was the very thing that the movie “Network,” in its own satiric way was trying to warn all of us about. Now we see it daily 24/7. Networks that do nothing but purportedly report the news. Well nothing could be further from the truth. We no longer have any idea what news reporting is…all we now get is 24hrs of being told what we should believe, having reporters filter every story with their personal bias and slant, or down right lying and adjusting an event to fit the particular political bent of the news station’s owner or director.
As someone who has been doing news for a long, long time, it is a sad day because journalism is now a relic of the past and we have at least a generation of people who have no idea what is means to get real reporting from these “so-called” news channels. Sadly, even newspapers, in order to compete with the cable news channels and changed network news outlets, have succumbed to the same shabby tabloid reporting just to try and keep their presses running and keep from shutting down.
A people who get biased reporting are ripe to believe anything spoon-fed to them and are perfect targets for the sly and cunning with ulterior motives.
who are the ones who have always been standing in the shadows ? always in the ways of surviving. why don’t the news media show how it really is? i don’t think we will ever reach another univerce. we seem to have alot of bridges to cross before doing this. to me people today are so dumbfouneded about life. it’s as if we are headed toward of someone telling us what to do with our lives. i could be wrong ,but i don’t think so. if and when it comes to pass i don’t think it is to far off. we have such narrow minded tv. stop and think rose wilder lane was a wonderful writter., but then the way she wrote bacame not important as everything else eventually does.