User:Ruben/TP1/Adilkno
TP1. Write an article based on 2-3 sections from 'The Media Archive' (Adilkno).
(Please note that the following text isn't fully crystallised, so certain statements probably stand oversimplified or might be open to misinterpretation.)
Our eyes fixed at the television. Images of a crash site. A male voice describes what we see: smoke rising from ashes, the remainders of a plane's tail, passports, a diary.
With a major event, traditional media hurry to ground zero to provide us with a 'live report' of the situation. We often tend to watch. But what's the value of absorbing such images, if the broadcaster can't provide us with any interpretation except for some improvisation? "The public is placed into the position of permanent journalists, while the viewers must keep on switching to get the messages." One could wonder whether the broadcast should still be called 'news': "Once topical media start broadcasting live [...] the interval in which events can turn into news is destroyed". (Topical Media)
When the interval between event and broadcast practically disappears, the viewer gets the responsibilities that the journalist used to have: providing interpretation and context. In addition, with the rising of the internet, every viewer has become broadcaster. One can vent its frustration on for example Twitter, which in turn is referred to in the news - seemingly increasing the credibility of the message and its poster. (Although in my opinion using such pour sources not only propagates an oversimplified messages, it also deteriorates the credibility of the news broadcaster.) "Generation after generation, on street corners, in coffeehouses and in pubs, the disaffected have vented their unpopular views on religion, revolution and race. But once they enter the media, all fuses blow. Collaboration in the age of technological reproduction: let the shit hit the fan, the microphones are wide open." (Incorrect Media) Adding credit to such unsubstantiated broadcastings should be done with caution because "[...] when the makers of incorrect media try to put their ideas into practice that things really get out of hand."
The shifting of responsibility from the journalist to the viewer fits the current individualistic society. Media companies (the internet-based above all) pretend (or believe) they fight this individualistic culture by 'connecting people'. In practice however, they merely contribute to the information overload on people, numbing their senses. This numbness (combined with the luxury of boredom and the jealousy of the merely happy broadcastings of others) makes them long for 'special experiences'. This gap is filled by festivals, supposedly turning us in a 'party generation'. (Although the the overload of different festivals makes it succumb on its own success. ( De Correspondent - Dutch))
On the other hand, information technology wants to provide us with flexibility. We can stay in touch with everyone at all times and work from the comfort of our homes. But instead of making our work more comfortable, this changes our homes into working places. It causes our free time to be ruled by schedules. "Traditionally, the home has always been the abode of children and their grandparents, but there is no room for that any more. It's just that people have other things on their minds. By all practical standards, the telehovel has become intolerable of children. In this empty, coated environment, there is no room left to create a world of your own. Visits have been cancelled and are generally frowned upon; they can only disrupt the programmed order of the day. Little people are firmly caught in a monitored development scheme. Ever since their moment of conception, they have been clones of a cultural ideal. They are made for perfection. And woe to them who fail to live up to this investment in their" (Electronic Loneliness)
Nowadays we spend more time under the shower (NOS). Not only because we use more cleaning products than a decade ago, but because it's the only time a day that we are undisturbed by our constant desire to stay updated. It's a rare moment in which we are not forced to look on our phone for updates from our friends or various other broadcasters. For most it's the only time a day left that we can contemplate on our day, in which we can have our minds wander. (So we should dread the day waterproof mobile phones become common.)