http://newmediatheory.net/2008/09/17/the-defenestration-of-the-msm/ McLuhan meets Raymond Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:51:14 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 http://newmediatheory.net/2008/09/17/the-defenestration-of-the-msm/#comment-1350 admin Mon, 29 Sep 2008 08:24:43 +0000 http://newmediatheory.net/2008/09/17/the-defenestration-of-the-msm/#comment-1350 Perhaps my point does get lost. The intent was to use overblown sarcasm, symbolically, not literally, throwing the MSM out the window. But I do mean it in the sense that before the snake sheds its skin there will have to be some real pain. The loss of credibility is already a major factor and the survival of even the NY Times is not assured. Perhaps MSNBC's failed attempt to outfox Fox is a turning point. To be unsarcastic I think we are seeing independent journalists filling the vacuum in the market by playing it straight - writing the first draft of history instead of soft core propaganda. To address your main point I certainly hope the MSM are finally coerced by the competition introduced by the Web based market to start really doing their job again. I would speculate that in the future there will continue to be a merry band of independents that think they can do a better job and who can, in fact, compete for the public's dollar. They may develop a recognizable identity and role - a sort of 5th estate. A J-school that makes their students study al Durah for a semester would be welcome. That said, during technological change the old players often die off because the new players understand the game better. Henry Ford understood manufacturing dynamics better than the buggy makers. Gates beat IBM but Linus Torvalds understands the dynamics of software development better than either. Bill Roggio just presented publicly available material dismissed by the MSM and now heads his own new organization -PMI (Public Media International) that dispatches correspondents to war zones. He writes a first draft of the War on Terror that the WaPo and the NY Times fail to write. Then there is your own Second Draft. I believe some of these new institutions will become part of the changed institutional landscape - a profoundly modified MSM - that emerges as a result of the changed media environment. So I think we will get a new and reformed media establishment - a genetically modified snake - to stretch the metaphor- rather than the same snake in a new skin. Perhaps my point does get lost. The intent was to use overblown sarcasm, symbolically, not literally, throwing the MSM out the window. But I do mean it in the sense that before the snake sheds its skin there will have to be some real pain. The loss of credibility is already a major factor and the survival of even the NY Times is not assured. Perhaps MSNBC’s failed attempt to outfox Fox is a turning point. To be unsarcastic I think we are seeing independent journalists filling the vacuum in the market by playing it straight – writing the first draft of history instead of soft core propaganda. To address your main point I certainly hope the MSM are finally coerced by the competition introduced by the Web based market to start really doing their job again. I would speculate that in the future there will continue to be a merry band of independents that think they can do a better job and who can, in fact, compete for the public’s dollar. They may develop a recognizable identity and role – a sort of 5th estate. A J-school that makes their students study al Durah for a semester would be welcome. That said, during technological change the old players often die off because the new players understand the game better. Henry Ford understood manufacturing dynamics better than the buggy makers. Gates beat IBM but Linus Torvalds understands the dynamics of software development better than either. Bill Roggio just presented publicly available material dismissed by the MSM and now heads his own new organization -PMI (Public Media International) that dispatches correspondents to war zones. He writes a first draft of the War on Terror that the WaPo and the NY Times fail to write. Then there is your own Second Draft. I believe some of these new institutions will become part of the changed institutional landscape – a profoundly modified MSM – that emerges as a result of the changed media environment. So I think we will get a new and reformed media establishment – a genetically modified snake – to stretch the metaphor- rather than the same snake in a new skin.

]]> http://newmediatheory.net/2008/09/17/the-defenestration-of-the-msm/#comment-1338 Richard Landes Sun, 28 Sep 2008 16:24:51 +0000 http://newmediatheory.net/2008/09/17/the-defenestration-of-the-msm/#comment-1338 it might feel good to cheer the defenestration of the MSM (cdn't happen to nicer guys), but what next? don't we need MSM to (do a good job) filtering what's reliable and not? cyberspace offers a valuable alternative source of information, but wdn't we rather a well-operating (honest, fair, informed) MSM that inform us and thereby empower us, rather than throw the baby out with the bath water? granted many of these guys are beyond reach -- precisely because they are so smart -- but can't we begin a process of forming a reliable school of journalism that cd eventually shed the dysfunctional practitioners of the current MSM -- partisan gatekeepers -- the way a snake sheds its old skin when the new one has grown? but can we do without a MSM? maybe i misunderstand your argument, but you probably get what i'm driving at. r it might feel good to cheer the defenestration of the MSM (cdn’t happen to nicer guys), but what next? don’t we need MSM to (do a good job) filtering what’s reliable and not? cyberspace offers a valuable alternative source of information, but wdn’t we rather a well-operating (honest, fair, informed) MSM that inform us and thereby empower us, rather than throw the baby out with the bath water?
granted many of these guys are beyond reach — precisely because they are so smart — but can’t we begin a process of forming a reliable school of journalism that cd eventually shed the dysfunctional practitioners of the current MSM — partisan gatekeepers — the way a snake sheds its old skin when the new one has grown? but can we do without a MSM?
maybe i misunderstand your argument, but you probably get what i’m driving at.
r

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