Is The Media Bad For Mankind? Why Blogs Matter

October 8, 2007

There I was. Watching the news one morning while having some breakfast. Fox News, to be exact. Does it matter what network? No, because they’re all the same. Constant bad news. A barrage. I’m left thinking: Why the hell do I watch this crap? It’s all about terrorism, how Iran might cause the next war, how Columbia treated the Iranian president, how people died, children got kidnapped, people are pissed. Yada yada yada.

Why watch that crap. Especially when the Cosby Show is on. Might be an old show, but it is wholesome and actually cheers me up. I can’t say that for the news. It’s just bad news, all day. Followed by two pinheads yelling at each other about matters they can’t affect. And there is America - spectating and doing nothing about it.

Then I thought about the internet. The internet is a form of media. It interconnects the globe like nothing we’ve ever had. TV, radio - neither can hold a candle to the internet in terms of it’s sheer global reach.

Now, obviously, I am a major fan of the internet. That goes without saying. I’m here, blogging and making my living every day online. And socially, I see the benefits that can be brought to mankind via the internet. The internet can and does bring world communications into unfriendly and third world areas. The internet is playing a major role in opening up China (as evidenced by how much they try to limit it), and I am convinced it plays a role inside of Iran and other countries with really inhumane governments. When at BlogOrlando recently, I listened to Shel Israel talk about his research into social media throughout the world. In China specifically, he said there are around 20 million bloggers. Since the government there tries to censor them, they simply run their blogs out of proxy servers in other areas of the world, the U.S. being a biggie. The Chinese government is losing control and it is very much due to the powers of the internet to enable global conversation.

That’s awesome.

What’s the flip side? Let’s look at 9/11. Horrible day. Have you ever thought about what the impact of that day would have been had it not been for the media and the internet? Put it quite simply, most of us would have never known about it. Our days would have been completely normal. Now, I certainly don’t want to minimize the global impact of what happened on that day, but I will say that that impact was intensified drastically by the media that covered it. Sensational press. The search for headlines. For popularity, viewers, traffic.

Now, while 9/11 might be a questionable example, let’s look at news since then. The Iranian president likes to blab on and threaten. He comes here to the U.S. and puts on a good show. Why? Because of the press. If it were not for the media, his trip would have been meaningless. In fact, were it not for the fear which is instilled into people via the press, the whole impact of a terrorist act would be in question. Were it not for the press, Al Queda would be out of business. Period.

Today, the media, whether it be TV, radio or the internet, all combines to magnify human problems. It takes upsets around the world, puts the magnifying glass on them, constantly points at them - all to the effect of making the world seem dangerous. It brings scattered upset and turns it into one big mass which has the potential to surround the globe as a whole.

So, is the media bad for mankind?

Obviously, such a question is a gross overstatement. I am a firm believer in the fact that communication is the universal solvent. Anything designed to lessen global communication is a bad thing.

But, boy do you have to police the hell out of it. On an individual level. Never in a million years would I condone any government entity limiting any of of this. But, it comes down to individual decision. These days you have to have a BS detector like never before to be a consumer of the modern press. If you do not CONSTANTLY question what you hear, read or see in the media, you are an unfortunate soul. And you are just opening your life up to all kinds of upset.

And the problem is that we have a lot of people in this world that do exactly that. They have no BS detector. Everything is equal to everything else. They can watch the news all day, watch as they talk about 50 people being killed somewhere and then jump right to a drug commercial like the two things are equal. Without some common sense, what are these people left to think? That the world is shit and we’re all about to die. Everything is equal to everything else is equal to BAD.

Less sensationalism. More BS detection. More critical thinking of the press. Then we would have a media that is all about global connection on a level that helps.

Bloggers - herein lies why I think the blogs and social media is so important these days. Most people in this world are good, decent people. The kinds of people, too, who might not have a voice on a global scale otherwise. Blogs and social media give people a global voice. Yes, it can create a lot of noise and increase the need for a good BS detector. Blogs don’t always get it right. But, one thing you CAN count on is the fact that you will get all viewpoints. You will get the context, the questions and the facts. Not necessarily from an individual blogger, but from the collective blogosphere.

With that in mind, I think it is safe to say that the mass media (television, specifically) has a lot of negative impacts. The internet, on the other hand, has much better potential for positive impact. And it comes down to intention. There is a lot more self policing online. If a blogger is screwing up, he will be called on it. I guarantee it. In the TV press, they get facts wrong all the time and they are not held accountable for it (except perhaps by bloggers, that is). The traditional press is a good-ol’ boy club of self-anointed elitists with self-proclaimed missions to change the world. I would rather have a loose conglomeration of real people posting to their blogs any day.