The drama that was Nixon's Presidency was 100% the fault of himself and his administration. Although the media and Anderson specifically, were out to dig up as much dirt as they could on him, it should be the response of a President to rise above the mud slinging that happens all too often in politician-media relations and act in the best interest of the country. Nixon's administration spent entirely too much time and energy on its "relationship" or lack thereof with the media. On the other side of the spectrum, you have the Bush administration which seemed to care very little about the impression of the media and acted in accordance with what they believed to be best for the country, or as some may argue, the administration itself. This is in line with how a Presidential Administration should view their media relationship. Is this the case? Absolutely not because without a positive relationship with the media, elections are shot.
Fortunately, I do not believe the issue we saw with Nixon's administration is as likely to unfold in today's world. There are so many channels of communication within the entire world that keeping such secrets with such great consequence is increasingly unlikely. Just ask Julian Assange.
----
The state of the news media today is interesting because it is becoming much more dynamic. The blog "Cable: Audience vs Economics" paints a bright financial picture of the cable news industry from a short term perspective but the long term perspective has some big warning flags. As revenues and profits are increasing, the battle between Fox, CNN, and MSNBC really seems to be increasingly irrelevant, at least in the cable space. Where it is becoming increasingly important is in cyber space. Despite the major lead that Fox has in cable, CNN has made its mark on the digital world. I would then argue that in the long term big picture, CNN is winning and Fox is losing. However, the digital world is a fast paced arena and things could change very quickly. Here is why.
At one time, technology was isolated into its own industry and everyone felt safe and comfortable with that idea (Red Flag #1). Intel, Microsoft, Apple, Google could do their thing in Silicon Valley/Seattle and every other industry could simply use their products to conduct every day business. Now, things have changed thanks to Facebook, Twitter, Google, YouTube, and many others. Every industry now must be dragged (by consumers) kicking and screaming into technology because that is now where consumers live. The automobile manufacturers, retailers, financial, energy, services, and so many other industries need not only to embrace a new kind of technology, but develop their own ideas and strategies within consumer technology. This is a scary world for them but is necessary for survival. CNN saw this and dove in head first with a very handsome return. Fox has been dragging their feet although News Corp's purchase of MySpace a few years ago turned a lot of heads, it ended up being a failure of magnificent proportions and highlighted News Corps lack of online expertise and momentum.
To make matters more difficult for CNN, MSNBC, and Fox, they are competing for ad dollars now in a much more simplified and more agressive market. Rather than negotiating deals with television providers and being guaranteed revenue over x years, these companies now need to compete for eyeballs. They are competing not only with each other, but against Drudge, Yahoo, Google, AOL (HuffPo) and thousands, millions more. Its going to be a while before we can determine which cable news network wins a piece in the race for market share in cyber space. That is assuming if any of them win a piece.
----
So finally to the question of does reality and tabloid media corrupt our politics and frame the message? Absolutely. It is unfortunately how easily people are persuaded by messages without taking a second to critically think about whether what they are hearing is true or not. In fact, its sickening. Not only that, but people do not question whether the source they are listening to may be a good source at all *cough* Comedy Central *cough*. I find it deeply disturbing when any news organization takes to the tactics of the tabloids and starts drumming up wild theories and stories about a candidate, movement, or ideas.
Fortunately, I do not believe the issue we saw with Nixon's administration is as likely to unfold in today's world. There are so many channels of communication within the entire world that keeping such secrets with such great consequence is increasingly unlikely. Just ask Julian Assange.
----
The state of the news media today is interesting because it is becoming much more dynamic. The blog "Cable: Audience vs Economics" paints a bright financial picture of the cable news industry from a short term perspective but the long term perspective has some big warning flags. As revenues and profits are increasing, the battle between Fox, CNN, and MSNBC really seems to be increasingly irrelevant, at least in the cable space. Where it is becoming increasingly important is in cyber space. Despite the major lead that Fox has in cable, CNN has made its mark on the digital world. I would then argue that in the long term big picture, CNN is winning and Fox is losing. However, the digital world is a fast paced arena and things could change very quickly. Here is why.
At one time, technology was isolated into its own industry and everyone felt safe and comfortable with that idea (Red Flag #1). Intel, Microsoft, Apple, Google could do their thing in Silicon Valley/Seattle and every other industry could simply use their products to conduct every day business. Now, things have changed thanks to Facebook, Twitter, Google, YouTube, and many others. Every industry now must be dragged (by consumers) kicking and screaming into technology because that is now where consumers live. The automobile manufacturers, retailers, financial, energy, services, and so many other industries need not only to embrace a new kind of technology, but develop their own ideas and strategies within consumer technology. This is a scary world for them but is necessary for survival. CNN saw this and dove in head first with a very handsome return. Fox has been dragging their feet although News Corp's purchase of MySpace a few years ago turned a lot of heads, it ended up being a failure of magnificent proportions and highlighted News Corps lack of online expertise and momentum.
To make matters more difficult for CNN, MSNBC, and Fox, they are competing for ad dollars now in a much more simplified and more agressive market. Rather than negotiating deals with television providers and being guaranteed revenue over x years, these companies now need to compete for eyeballs. They are competing not only with each other, but against Drudge, Yahoo, Google, AOL (HuffPo) and thousands, millions more. Its going to be a while before we can determine which cable news network wins a piece in the race for market share in cyber space. That is assuming if any of them win a piece.
----
So finally to the question of does reality and tabloid media corrupt our politics and frame the message? Absolutely. It is unfortunately how easily people are persuaded by messages without taking a second to critically think about whether what they are hearing is true or not. In fact, its sickening. Not only that, but people do not question whether the source they are listening to may be a good source at all *cough* Comedy Central *cough*. I find it deeply disturbing when any news organization takes to the tactics of the tabloids and starts drumming up wild theories and stories about a candidate, movement, or ideas.
Very interesting post! I think it is terrible that so many stations and companies in general had to bring themselves into the world wide web because of the rise in popularity. It is true that they really had no choice, with out jumping on the band wagon their companies would have been dramatically hurt. It will be interesting to see what path cable news stations take in the future. Hopefully one day they will start to somehow rate who is being viewed online to better obtain true ratings.
ReplyDelete