Fifty
years ago, when I was a kid, electronic media were becoming a fact of
life. We took radio for granted—it had
been around forever—and television
grew to be an integral part of our existence.
There were three networks, public television, and, if you were in a
really big market, one or two independent local stations. News was broadcast for five minutes on the
hour, every hour, on the radio. On TV, the
networks broadcast national and world news at the dinner hour. And local news had at it at the end of every “prime
time” evening. That was it.
We
had it good. We had the perfect blend of
news and time for it to sink in. Time to
make decisions about what to DO about it.
We were not bombarded with “news” 24 hours a day. Maybe that was why it was the “golden age of
journalism.” News stories had to be concise,
factual, and well-researched, because the writers would not get another crack
at them for several hours.
And
we got the news that WAS news. There was
no time for the ideological pissing contests, magazine fluff pieces and celebrity
stalking that passes for “news” today; that unfortunately has multiplied to
such a degree that it has completely buried real
news. In fact, I don’t think you could
find a shred of what we used to call “news” even if you did have the fortitude
to shovel away the Everest-esque mountain of crap churned out by electronic
media today. Because they just don’t
produce that kind of thing anymore. It
doesn’t entertain. And it doesn’t sell
soap.
Yes, the world “shrunk” once, back in the early decades of the twentieth century. It reached an almost manageable size, a proportion that you could possibly wrap your head around. You got a window into lives that were not your own, and gained some understanding that you were not the center of the universe. You were force-fed the seeds of empathy for people less comfortable than yourself.
Time was, you watched what there was, and sometimes it wasn’t pleasant. But Americans are no longer compelled to
witness the more unpleasant aspects of others’ real lives around the world.
If you should come across a broadcast that challenges or disturbs, you
can just “click” to a reality more to
your liking. Unfortunately,
the amount of information churned out by media today is so massive, so
unmanageable, that it has served to actually reverse the world-shrinking trend. Well, no...it hasn't reversed it. What it did, perhaps, was inject our shrunken world with so much fill that it burst--into millions and millions of smaller worlds.
We
no longer reluctantly allow world truths into our living rooms at the dinner
hour. We don’t find ourselves changed against
our wills. The sheer volume of “information”
out there has allowed us to choose. Compelled us to choose. In the 21st century, we can simply
inhabit our own personal, comfortable universes, populated with things and
people who entertain us, make us feel good, underscore the opinions we already
have and don’t challenge us to form new ones.
And since all this stuff is coming at us from the media that we were
raised to trust (a trust based on long-extinct principles of truth and
transparency in broadcasting), we feel validated and justified in these insular
worlds we now inhabit. “It was on TV
(the radio, the internet) so it must be right.”
The
media takeover of America that once enlightened, enriched and empowered us, now
serves to neutralize us. Blind us. Enable our addiction to the comforts and
pleasures of inhabiting one of the richest nations on the planet. Why should I care about changing the world? I’ve got MY cozy little reality!
Talk
about going to hell in a well-upholstered, insulated and encapsulated
handbasket…
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