Red Media, Blue Media: Communication Trends...

Media is changing from mass to (a flood of) niche information and political communications in this new environment this year made rapid radical leaps. Here are things to highlight:

Media & Political Communication Theories: I dug into two very relevant academic research studies on the latest ideas that are applicable to our times - 1) The Changing Foundations of Political Communication pdf by W. Lance Bennett & Shanto Iyengar, Journal of Communication, Forthcoming; and 2) Red Media, Blue Media pdf by Shanto Iyengar, Stanford, and Kyu S. Hahn of Yonsei University and UCLA, published in the Journal of Communications on the proliferation of new media and how enhanced media choices will contribute to the further polarization of the news audience.

News Will Not Get More Fair and Balanced: The Fairness Doctrine  was repealed by Ronald Reagan in 1987.  Before that time the media outlets were limited and requiring equal time for political opinions/news made sense.  Now there are many outlets and opinion/biased news so The Fairness Doctrine doesn't make sense (if you want more on that, go read the pdf academic research paper on Red Media Blue Media in the paragraph above). We are now at The End of Objectivity and journalism is more opinionated and it is hard to tell pundits from journalists.  It is even hard to tell the truth, really (think of the fake story about Sarah Palin not knowing that Africa was a continent) in these fast and continuous news cycles. Yes, the press is biased - in favor of recognizing who is winning and stating that perhaps too often but Editor and Publisher asks, too, "Is it “bias” to ... vet a candidate for vice president who (we now know) had not been vetted by anyone else?"

Well, Red Media has been behind online and strong in radio talk shows. Young Republicans have a new site to recover from being bamboozled with new media: Rebuild The Party.

Online Media grew in leaps and bounds, driven by the political and financial situation in October: 
Huffington Post grew 448% year-over-year to 8.1 million, gaining the most unique readers among all top news destinations in October, according to Nielson. Top news sites: MSNBC, CNN, Yahoo!News, AOL News, NYTimes, Tribune Newspapers, ABCNews, FoxNewsDigital, Gannett, Google News, WashingtonPost, USAToday, CBSNews Digital, McClatchy Newspaper Network, BBC, Hearst Newspapers Digital, The HuffingtonPost, Advance Internet, WorldNow, Topix, Slate, Boston.com.

Obama's reading habits: After three months of campaigning, he stopped reading blogs. After six months, he stopped watching cable news shows. After nine months, he stopped reading the press clips, relying instead on his staff to flag important stories.  This, for the most tech savvy president we've had.

New White House Communications: Will media mediate the message, or will Obama have direct access and skip the mainstream media with the White House communications operation using an email database of more than 10 million supporters. Just as John F. Kennedy mastered television as a medium for taking his message to the public, Obama is poised to transform the art of political communication once again, says Joe Trippi.  Obama's first YouTube address was boring. Trend indicator: For the first time ever it will be a website -- not a news agency, a magazine or a newspaper -- which will have the largest team of writers covering the White House. Politico.com, a political news start-up which has soared in popularity since its launch 22 months ago, will have six full-time reporters to cover the Obama administration. The Washington Post's doubled crew of White House reporters will include a full-time blogger. The Right Wing Media is bracing for a shut-out.

TV may be yesterday, anyway, with these trends: When Tina Fey debuted her impression of Sarah Palin on "Saturday Night Live" last month, more people watched the comedy sketch online at NBC.com or Hulu.com than during the show's broadcast. Last week, YouTube announced that it would start carrying old TV shows and movies from the film studio. Yet again part of the post-media world? 

Red, Blue, Old, New.  And me, an Independent not old, not new.

Comments

[anthony]

I think people would pay more attention to the the media if they had some sort of accountability and standards. When an entire story can be written, published in print, then posted on internet to become viral, and the basis for the facts are "an unnamed source", or "close sources say", on and on. Writers have an opinion, as long as they can fabricate details to back it up and print it, without any concern for truth, then its no better than the "fake" rolex's they sell on the streets of NYC. Think if your plumber, electrician, or dentists were held to the same "non-standards". If you need examples, go anywhere, but start at the grocery check out.

[MotherPie]

With unattributed sources there should be tighter standards and this is an issue that was dealt with at the NYTimes back in 2005/2006 or so. There are some sources -- say in government -- that can not disclose information with attribution. In order to get information "off the record" or information relevant to a story, a reporter has to make a judgement call and that is why journalists protect sources. What the standards evolved, though, in order to prevent propaganda information from flowing without attribution, was to have the reporter cite the reason why the source requires anonymity.

I agree, though, using attribution such as "a spokesperson said" or "according to a source" provides unverifiable information and can lead to questionable facts being reported.

[Kay Dennison]

Sigh. I mourn the loss of standards for ANYTHING in our society. Civiility in general is gone. When I was growing up there were things one just didn't do -- most of us (rich or poor) grew up in homes where certain behavior was expected. Common sense, common courtesy and common decency were the norms for behavior in our society. Where did that go? We've let our schools rot by dumbing down education. I was astounded at what my own children didn't learn in school compared to my own education.

Our news people: Walter Cronkite, Ed Murrow, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley were men of honor and honesty and while each had his own spin, we pretty much got it straight. They took pride in journalistic integrity.

Today it's about sound bytes and headline grabbing with no regard for the truth. It's like McDonald's -- it's fodder not real food.

I frankly am sick and tired of our media and mourn the loss of integrity. The average high school graduate can't even spell integrity much less understand what it is.

As to solutions, I'm at a loss. Even if the Fairness Doctrine was reinstituted, nothing would change because I long felt that the younger people of today think that rules are for other people. And that saddens me.

I hope this makes sense -- I ramble when I rant and this upsets me a lot.

[susiej]

Fascinating post. However, Obama frequently makes reference to the Lincoln writings, and he just started reading the newest book on FDR. He is still reading -- books are probably better than blogs -- which I hope he continues to do. I like that my President is well-read!

I tire so quickly of sensational headlines, which are full of false truths, and the nightly news taglines that start at 8, startling you with some revelation to keep you up past your bedtime -- only to find out, it really wasn't the way they said it would be.