Truth Decay

The RAND organization has studied “news in the digital age” and here are their three main takeaways:

  • Print journalism and reporting on broadcast television have been mostly consistent in tone and style over the last 30 years. But since 2000, there’s been a gradual shift toward more-subjective reporting.
  • When comparing prime-time cable programming with broadcast television, there were significant differences in how the news was presented.
  • “Old media” is more grounded in traditional reporting. “New media” tends to lean more subjective.

Those are merely the tip of the iceberg. To those I’d add the following:

  • The younger people are the more likely they are to get their news from online sources.
  • Online sources have a more subjective, agonistic style than print media.
  • Print media have declined substantially over the past 20 years.
  • Print media adopting the style and tone of online media has made them less reliable and accelerated their decline.

There’s a lot to study on this subject.

1 comment… add one
  • Gray Shambler Link

    Noted in the news that Facebook has deleted 2.4 Billion fake accounts in three months.
    I’d suppose most of these were not trying to shape the news, most probably trying to promote business or causes. But in any event they distort Facebook users perception of public opinion, and to a large degree, reality.

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