Sunset industries always consolidate - TV bad! stop watching! go have something else in common with your civilization. On Feb 5, 2008 1:09 PM, Alan Dayley wrote: > > Joshua Zeidner wrote: > > > > Alan, > > > > unfortunately, not too many 'tech guys' understand the Media biz > > all too well. I'll try to put this into concise terms here: > > > > consolidation = 'information richness'--. > > > > in other words, if media is owned by few- then obviously the > > overall choices are diminished. The basis of our information then > > takes on a less diverse character, and typically in order to maintain > > this situation, the 'illusion of news' needs to be propagated. So we > > fill the viewers heads will all sorts of useless topics like Britany > > Spears, etc. because we have to report *something* [1] and we employ > > people with nice haircuts and terse voices to give the illusion of > > importance, because without some kind of information to fill our > > heads, we will have the feeling that we are being uninformed, in which > > case the program has no or an opposite effect. The last failsafe is > > to prevent the 'media consumer' from essentially smashing their TV > > set. > > > > Martin @ FCC has persued a consistent policy of promoting > > monopolization of the media, often in direct opposition to public > > protest. Specifically Martin's treatment of the newspaper medium will > > have a drastic effect. > > > > For a background in these topics I recommend reading Walter Lippman. > > > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Lippmann > > > > Also Dan Gillmor is somewhat of a figure in this realm. He now > > works at ASU. > > > > http://www.dangillmor.com/ > > > > -jmz > > > > > > > > [1] And appealing to your reproductive instincts is perhaps the most > > effective way to provide this stimulus. > > Thanks for the information. I'll look at them later but I think I get > your gist. And I agree that less sources of information and so on leads > to the "illusion of news." > > Alan > > > --------------------------------------------------- > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss