In Jeff Jarvis’s blog “The Press
Becomes the Press-Sphere” he discusses how our world is solely press related
when it comes to news. However, there are many different outlets and mediums
for news then just the “press.” His various charts are not only confusing but
also inaccurate in today’s world. His “the way it was” chart was accurate until
the 60’s when magazines and other forms of media were being introduced that
discussed news.
The confusion in my mind begins
simply with the fact that anyone who reports on the news is some varied form of
the press. Not in traditional terms but to some extent they are. They are
discussing both relevant and not so relevant news via blogs, newscasts, radio,
and other such mediums. They are funneling updates and lead stories to us
still. When Jarvis uses the example that John Stewart is “one of us” and
reports news differently than the Press, which is unfounded. Essentially he is
doing the same thing as a news anchor but with a funny spin.
However, I do agree with Jarvis’s
belief that media is now more about how we as a people ingest the news and
digest it via texts, pictures, and blogs. That is the newest forms of media.
While the people expanding upon the Press’s news is how stories are formed
today, it doesn’t make our society any less based upon the power of the Press
and the stories they publish.
I completely agree with your second paragraph. Everyone who decides to "pass along" news of any sorts is a form of the press. People just tend to do it in different ways. Also Jarvis says that the media is more about conforming to how the public would understand the news the best i.e. pictures. So would Jarvis agree with Hedges or Thompson about the world becoming illiterate?
ReplyDeleteYou make some good points Ryan. Regardless of the use of pictures in media and the press today, I believe Jarvis would agree that while the diction may be toned down, literacy is still improving. Simply because he does believe that everyone is a form of press, everything we use is a medium in which we pass along information, all of which indicates an overall use of literacy for the average person.
ReplyDelete