So with the alt-right belabouring the unfair MSM, the left complaining of untruths circling right-wing media, there is a lot of talk, mostly criticism, going on about the state of the US media system.

So where did it all go wrong? Is it because journalism is no longer held to standards (repeal of Fairness Doctrine/start of Telecommunications Act), is it because of 5-6 big players owning nearly all mainstream media outlets (Mostly due to the Telecommunications Act)?

How should it be resolved? Should there be some form of control (either by a board of Journalists not unlike judicial review) over what can be published and what can't or is the current libel/slander law enough to deter bad journalism?

Or am I making this problem out bigger than it seems?



Personally, I think the 24/7 news cycle is definitely harming the quality of mainstream media journalism. Moreover, the profitability of journalism seems to harm the integrity. This can be seen in the case of Amanda Knox for example, where you have gleeful reporters talking about how the front page mattered more to them than fact checking (Amanda Knox doc, currently on Netflix). I do think that these journalists should be held accountable by law or by some form of journalistic association.

Polarized media is the result of a polarized meta in politics. Or it could be the other way around, its a chicken-egg situation. Likely they've enabled each other enough to blur that line completely.

Humans, American's especially, are entertained and even emboldened by conflict. While it's not conducive to change it is easier to get excited about than fair compromise. In a political and social world where entertainment becomes increasingly powerful I think it's here to stay. If anything the governments of the world need to take note, and realize that out of strife with a social media reality we live in, nationalism and populism can rise. Take the steps now to stabilize any contentious issues, quell the fires while they can be put out.

And i think we need to mention that in US politics neither side has been working towards a compromise on ANY issue for a decade plus. The reason we don't have a balanced budget, reasonable climate change policy, or reasonable gun control policy is because we as a population haven't demanded compromise or results for years, we're all so scared the other side will get their way we're more happy with nothing happening, because that's what we know and what feels safe.

This post was edited by thesnipa on Oct 17 2016 07:29am

Don't worry. After the Donald gets shellacked in November, he will start a fair and trustworthy media and news organization to rule them all.

The main problem is the lack of effective monetization of good journalism. News is now monetized mostly by internet ads, which results in writing clickbait garbage being the best business decision.

We need a resurgence of quality pay journalism.

Yeah, there's a lot more money in garbage. No one really wants good media, really. Certainly not enough of us to pay for it regularly. The free market doin work out here.

I agree on the whole, but i think that the lack of trust in the media and the polarizing over the last decade that preceded online media played a part on why subscription media dropped so fast.

I mean by that, that we live in an era where online subscriptions are booming, Ipsy, Netflix, hobby subscriptions, 3 meals a week delivered to your house, every single online company that's free has a payed subscription which increases benefits, etc. Surely in all that there's a market for media to be sold, but only if the people have reason to trust it above and beyond the free media. It needs to be established as credible well beyond clickbait, which sadly has proven to be a hell of a chore while still keeping people entertained.

I think this may happen when cord cutting reaches its pivotal point, paid media will be forced to fully adapt or die. I for one expect entirely ala carte cable networks viewed entirely by streaming rather than coaxial to be the norm soon. At that point any news network will have to be worthy of buying with your package, so the competition may increase quality at least for some networks to break out as more objective than the ones people buy for an echo chamber like Fox News.

The problem is that the vast majority want to be entertained, not informed.

Yeah it would be hard to compete with the likes of the NY Times and BBC News.

Mother Jones has an interesting model.

Once upon a time we had regulated media and dozens of outlets. Since they were deregulated in the 90's we have seen massive consolidation of media companies leading to our current problem. Most journalists are working for the same five or six companies, and companies that large do not take risks unless absolutely necessary.

Also once upon a time media companies got exclusive access to frequencies on the condition they supply quality news, which they were expected to lose money on. We haven't been enforcing the rules very well, so we get shit.

There's plenty of reasons, and most of it comes down to loosening regulations over the past few decades.

I expect that even those outlets will change when the only TV outlet is ala carte, but we'll see.

I think a part of the state of TV media is due to TV packages. They can operate how they please because they're securely part of a 50-100 channel package. The NFL is already feeling the sting of cord cutting, I'm guessing traditional media outlets will be next, as their prime time networks already have streaming packages. I was shocked this year when CBS pulled all of its live shows from the streaming platforms and went rogue with their own. If a few more do it i'll convert fully and cut out my direct TV package.