Forget The Complaints About The MSM, YOU Are The Media!

[Jcrowley]

Zogby Poll: Most Say Bloggers, Citizen Reporters to Play Vital Role in Journalism's Future

Online survey finds general public, media conference attendees agree that traditional news outlets could do a better job. A majority of Americans (55%) in an online survey said bloggers are important to the future of American journalism and 74% said citizen journalism will play a vital role, a new WE Media/Zogby Interactive poll shows.


Most respondents (53%) also said the rise of free Internet-based media pose the greatest opportunity to the future of professional journalism and three in four (76%) said the Internet has had a positive impact on the overall quality of journalism


The survey results were released by Pollster John Zogby as part of a conference of media industry insiders hosted by the University of Miami. In the national survey of adults, 72% said they were dissatisfied with the quality of American journalism today. A majority of conference–goers who were polled on the subject agreed – 55% said they were dissatisfied, and 61% said they believed traditional journalism is out of touch with what Americans want from their news.


Nearly nine out of 10 media insiders (86%) said they believe bloggers will play an important part in journalism’s future.

<snip>

Dissatisfaction with today’s news reportage is greater among those nationwide online respondents who identified themselves as conservative – 88% said they were unhappy with journalism, while 95% of “very conservative” respondents said the quality of journalism today is not what it should be. Among those respondents identifying themselves as liberal, 51% said they are dissatisfied with the quality of journalism. Dissatisfaction levels were also highest among older respondents – 78% of those age 65 and older said they are dissatisfied. Most respondents (65%) also said they believe traditional journalism is out of touch with what Americans want from their news, with the highest levels of dissatisfaction with traditional journalism among those age 70 and older (74%), the very conservative (95%), and libertarians (89%).


<snip>

http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1247

[TreasonousBastard]

1. So, conservative hate the news more than we do...

which means perhaps the news is doing something right after all.

But, I'm curious why I should trust some blogger I've never heard of any more than I should trust the NY Times? Is anyone trying to say with a straight face that bloggers are less ideological than professional media? Do bloggers have better sourcing and internal editorial controls?

Some blogs are pretty good, I'll admit, but I'm the kind of dinosaur who will never let blogs replace turning pages over the morning cofee.

[bryant69]

2. Hey come on - if you can't trust anonymous people on the internet

who can you trust?

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[TreasonousBastard]

3. IT'S TRUE! IT'S TRUE! I read it on the internet!

[Jcrowley]

4. Beats the innumerable lies of the papers of record

The remarks were apparently made by Swinton, then the preeminent New York journalist, probably one night in 1880. Swinton was the guest of honour at a banquet given him by the leaders of his craft. Someone who knew neither the press nor Swinton offered a toast to the independent press. Swinton outraged his colleagues by replying:

There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it.

There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone.

The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an independent press?

We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes.

(Source: Labor's Untold Story, by Richard O. Boyer and Herbert M. Morais, published by United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America, NY, 1955/1979.)

Despite the misattribution, the quote raises the issue of whether there is not continuing truth in Swinton's remarks, and whether some candid journalist might not be able to fairly say similar things today. Anyone who has associated closely with journalists can hardly avoid finding a ring of truth in such words, and the best evidence lies in the actual product of journalists and how well, or how poorly, it both agrees with and covers what actually happens, especially involving such things as corruption and abuse of power.

http://www.constitution.org/pub/swinton_press.htm