Social Engineering?
We had a nice, thought provoking conversation at lunch today, regarding world news, and the views that people hold based on the information they recieve.
Ever since I saw the Gulf War coverage from Houston, TX while reading a copy of 1984 , I've had a distinct distaste for modern news outlets. In fact, that was the summer I got rid of cable, and stopped watching the news.
I'm not saying that I'm living in a world of ignorant bliss. I keep up with current events, from some international sources, which is the same crap, just covering up different social issues. But, since that day, I look at every story, wondering how true it is, and how much can be believed.
The problem, I've realized, is one of trust. I don't trust the North American news agencies to give me unbiased views of current events. Currently, I don't trust any single news agency to give me the whole picture, but instead, if a story intests me, I try to see how it is covered from several angles. Sometimes, even what people have blogged about the subject can reveil something that is otherwise overlooked, or will provide a different point of view.
Reflecting upon this, I've come to the conclusion that this is the direction that media is going. Already we have companies worth billions of dollars that were built upon giving people what they want, and selling advertisements to capture the attention of their audience. The internet is disolving borders, and making information (including mis-information) incredibly easy to get. Which brings us back to trust.
Let us say you have an entity on the internet that you trust to give you the no nonsense view of things (even if it is their view). I'm thinking that you would begin to use them as a regular outlet for information. Be they a journalist on the ground in a hotspot, a hockey fan that attends every game, or your grandmother commenting on local happenings, the trust would be the key factor in you coming back, and believing what was given to you.
It would be the new age of information. There are already success stories of people being able to walk away from a full time 9 to 5, and make a very decent living talking about stuff they love. Podcasting is another catalyst that is making this transformation from mainstream to anystream happen at a breakneck pace. Already there is a few of these authors (audiotors?) that make their podcast exclusively to support their lifestyle.
The transformation isn't going to happen as fast as I would like. There is too much interest in our current government to keep Industry alive (and making money) over the interests of the common man. I'm confident, however; that change is coming.
