"Our greatest responsibility is to be good ancestors."

-Jonas Salk

Monday, June 21, 2010

Do the Media Inform?



Via xkcd of course. Tooltip says:

News networks giving a greater voice to viewers because the social web is so popular are like a chef on the Titanic who, seeing the looming iceberg and fleeing customers, figures ice is the future and starts making snow cones.

2 comments:

Tweetingdonal said...

Excellent choice for a cartoon, although http://xkcd.com/26/ is still my favorite.

The media's switch from News to Infotainment helped create this situation. I doubt that it can be overcome unless real "News" and Journalism find a way to express themselves once more.

Anonymous said...

Should we call it "Cargo Cult Journalism"? Something with the trappings of investigative reporting -- a bloke holding a mic, a seriously serious format, and a report written in Old High Newspaperese -- but without the substance that makes good journalism.

I think good journalism, like good science, is ultimately based on the scientific method. A good reporter will ask questions which can falsify things, rather than questions which only serve to confuse everyone.

-- frank