#So315 what I find interesting about the statistic about trusting the media, is that I feel like it’s not just a media problem. It’s a civic problem. Rebuilding trust could be hard especially in today’s world but it isn’t impossible and I think there are many ways to do it. Both sides just need to act on it.
Cool Penguin
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I also found that the discussion of ownership and advertising pressures especially interesting. If media outlets depend on profit, can coverage ever be fully independent? Chapter 6 makes it clear that economic structure quietly influences content, because people/organizations either are too greedy to stay unbiased or depend so much on the money/profit that they are absolutely NOT fully independent.
Chapter 6 really shifted how I think about journalism. News isn’t just “reported”, it’s produced within institutions that have deadlines, budgets, ownership pressures, and professional norms. Also, when chapter 6 mentioned that journalists can't be unbiased, that resonated with me well because a lot of people today believe they can be when in reality it is close to or just straight up impossible for them to be unbiased.
In “The Truth Is Paywalled But The Lies Are Free”, Robinson argues that our information ecosystem is biased toward misinformation. False and simplistic claims spread freely and quickly online, while careful, evidence-based journalism and academic research are often locked behind paywalls. The result is a public sphere where the most accessible ideas are often the least reliable. Which, shapes beliefs, political opinions, and even policy debates in ways that undermine informed democracy.
It is truly funny that truth costs money while spreading “bullshit” doesn’t. Robinson mentions this which really does make such a problem of inequality for information since it is much easier to spread lies than tell th truth purely from a money standpoint.
Finishing the documentary made me think about a certain question that reflects on our past society and today’s society as well:
How should accountability look through the lens of systems of Social Media and influencing society?
This documentary really made me think, Who decides the “truth”? What I mean by that is we can see Facebook or other social media media sites amplify misinformation whether it be intentional or unintentional.
It’s really interesting that the Facebook dilemma shows that the decisions that are made for growth and engagement affected users privacy and even before they noticed too. We can even see that in today’s world where some companies like to alter TOS or secretly change something to make you or the consumer “consent” to it even though you really don’t.
I hope we get into more of the differences between old forms and types of media and as well as the newer forms of media and how it breaks old ways we used to think about “social” media and how we think and see it now vs a few years or even a few decades ago.
I wonder when/if the main media consumed by adults in the USA won’t be TV anymore and will change to mobile or computers?