Mainstream journalists ought to be concerned, very concerned as the Obamanians take their President directly to the people, perhaps deliberately bypassing traditional journalists. This signals a vastly different era where the President increasingly has powerful tools to reach people.
Politicians have played around the edges with internet based connections to people for the past few years, but Obama took it to the next level. He intends to continue doing so BIG time using today's communications tools.
While I have frequently criticized the MSM for their bias and shortcomings, they are worried and we need to be continually aware that government does not overly disintermediate the media and gain too much control over the message. That would not be healthy for our republic.
This will be a fascinating but necessary struggle.
"In an interview, Mr. Phillips, 30, said the site would give the White House another way to reach the public without having to rely on the mainstream news media.
“Historically the media has been able to draw out a lot of information and characterize it for people,” he said. “And there’s a growing appetite from people to do it themselves.”
The approach is causing some concern among news media advocates, who express discomfort with what effectively could become an informational network reaching 13 million people, or more, with an unchallenged, governmental point of view.
“They’re beginning to create their own journalism, their own description of events of the day, but it’s not an independent voice making that description,” said Bill Kovach, the chairman of the Committee of Concerned Journalists. “It’s troublesome until we know how it’s going to be used and the degree to which it can be used on behalf of the people, and not on behalf of only one point of view.”"
No comments:
Post a Comment