The problem…the medium is the message. ABC, CBS,CNN Fox for sure are all guilty of journalism malpractice.
THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE….FOR PROFIT AND POWER…..
They dwell on the popular press, the easy answer, the quick sound bite.
That is OUR world.
In 2016 the main stream press, not just Fox, jumped on every nuance of Hillary Clinton’s emails…
As it turned out, and as it was exposed by the FBI, there was nothing there. (Comey’s book as reference)
And Trump, with his bombastic debate behavior, with chants of Lock her Up, , sexism oozing from his pores , attacked Clinton mercilessly. AND HE WON!
And he won..So from then on, we got a steady diet of campaign “appearances” even though there was four LONG years of Trump ahead.
And the press REWARDED HIIM BY BREATHLESSLY CARRYING EVERY WORD, NO MATTER HOW STUPID.
We are treated everyday to this same thing..Trump learned that the way to win is to brutalize an opponent.
He even carries this madness over to the pandemic, acting as if a virus, a very deadly one by the way, is a person…to be stood up to, to “fight” by not wearing a mask.
His propaganda approach does not stop because he has no reason not to continue his hate filled approach. And the press carries every word.
They are doing it today, carrying his tweets, following his every word.
Do you know the FPPC was de fanged by the SCOTUS, allowing billions to be spent on elections? (Citizen’s United)..
So our government doesn’t work..it doesn’t work because the anti-government advocates has gained traction and more power for their rich base, with the “new and exciting” wide open and well funded lies.
There has never been such a gap between rich and poor than there is today, check any economic indicator of wealth gap….
Ripe for Racism and Prejudice being weaponized into Fascism!
No fact checking, and no reasonable discussion of issues, witness Tuesday night, is exactly what a fascist racist wants! The literature on the Weimar Republic proves this fascist approach…
Biden in one sentence at least was able to interrupt into talking about policies.
Trump was intent on destroying Biden…that was it…with every lie he could make up.
And the press, is now carrying the “debate” as both sides not acting with “decorum”.
Look I took debate at Stanford, almost got on the debating team. I know debate. Tuesday was no debate.
Reasonable discussion of issues, that you get every morning? Right now you might read the ONLY Facebook entry (mine) that uses more than a few sentences and cartoon, a LOL or whatever other admission that the author can write…just be cute but don’t be scholarly for sure…
That is Trump land, making Twitter the medium and message that requires 25 words or less.
Us old guys remember why…in the beginning of the media and Internet, 25 words or so is all the technology could carry…they were called bulletin boards…
So a political statement could only be 25 words? Are you kidding. me? Government reduced to 25 words?
There, I just used a twitter friendly phrase…are you kidding. me!
I was lucky enough to to be one of 5 school administrators who visited PARC (Palo Alto Research Center), a think tank for the future of digital learning and new technologies that could benefit education.
I got my first Netscape App Beta there.
But there was more to it, way more. We found out that the Desktop Interface was invented at PARC , as a “toy” that the researchers used to organize their research..just a toy they said.
They also told us about Steve Jobs visiting a few months earlier interested in what the “office of he future” would look like.
All of the other innovations, the hard disk drive for example, were looked over; “But all Steve was interested in was the desktop interface” is what scientist who were there that day related to us.
The researchers said they shared their code with Jobs and his team willingly, since “It wasn’t going anywhere anyway”..The researchers had invented the desktop interface as a simpler way to communicate…as a “toy”
Right. Some toy!
Basically the Mac was born at PARC, not at Apple,
I digress , our task as educators was to find out where cutting edge tech was taking us educationally.
PARC didn’t know because they were researching the office of the future, and “copiers were the trend of the future”.. There was no personal computer then…this was 1999.
Personal computers and the internet were “toys for the children to mess with”..
The first computer I bought was at Wards called Vic 20…it was a toy..playing games on it was about all you could do!
One thing I do remember more than anything else…the researchers did warn that they had no idea where this revolution in communication was going…they did tell us that the limitations of broadband at the time…modems had just been invented, were keeping the amount of verbiage you could send back and forth, at a very low amount.
Hence Twitter…and with brevity came. an opening for lies and propaganda…
Not so today, you are right…Today, even high school essays are full of links (research) to verify a position.
Except for Twitter and except for propaganda. That is facilitated to the maximum, because lying is so much easier with Twitter and Facebook.
A Russian Troll is reading this right new, by the way SCREW. YOU COMRADE…..and figuring out more propaganda to float on Facebook to sway American life and politics. Do I think Russians read Facebook, that was the source of this “essay”, the FBI says so!
There was collusion for sure, but it was digital, almost impossible to trace. Many of the posts you are being influenced by, regardless of what Facebook lies about, are political intended to change your mind on a host of issues; mostly involving more revenue for Facebook!
For sure, the propagandist does not want reason involved…does not want verbiage, because that would show thought.
Hannah Arendt wrote Adolph Eichmann, A Study in the Banality of Evil…She postulated that fascism preys on people being fooled into stopping thought..going with the simple statement, the exaggeration, the opinion that was weaponized by fascism…and victims were coached and taught to go with the simple solution (the Final Solution) at first conditioned by lies, then more lies, that put the mind to sleep..
The human brain, in times of stress, wants simple solutions, so the reasoning mind stops working, leaving the ‘easy explanation; “Antifa is more of a threat to America than the Proud Boys” for example.
Trump almost blew a gasket with his screams that Antifa is a threat to national security Tuesday night.
Antifa means Anti-fascist. Now why, if you THINK FOR A MINUTE; WOULD HE SAY THAT?
My ex friends take the easy and pathetic path to politics by going with the simple answer…and at its core is mindless (turning off the mind)…just as Hanna Arendt predicted years ago.
So the “biggest threat to America is “antifa”, or the “Black Thugs” while a lack of policies by the President to curb the killer virus that has ruined the economy, are a disaster…but you have to : 1. Think. 2. Think and read more than a Twitter feed. 3. Think.
I was trained over many years to be able to say incredible rather than “bullshit”..If I was going to take a position, being a debater, I needed to read and think.
That is old school for kids today..they think in tweets, in emails, and yes, they go for shortcuts aided by technology for their information.
I am sending this to you because in the 1/2 hour before class starts I want to discuss it…Knowing full well that the medium, Zoom, is set up to not encourage thinking…
News Digest Apps are destroying Newspapers. Apple News is destroying what this left of newspapers, and it is a “digest news” medium…Lots of videos less verbiage.
PARC was working on digital paper. They reasoned that newspapers were so ingrained into the American customs, that digital papers, think micron paper that could carry a digital image, and was reusable, was the paper of the future. All major newspapers in the United States were sponsoring the digital paper idea. And even then, they were afraid that digital information and its uses would destroy the free press.
That never happened, but I am typing this on my Ipad, researching it in milli-seconds, by going to the internet (real research not twitter) for resources for my “opinions”..
PARC remember thought everything but copiers and faxes (I forgot about faxes) were toys.
Some toys…
We are being engulfed by the medium NOT the message, and it is killing our democracy in my opinion.
It is being used by extremist groups, by foreign governments, to attack American democracy.
And they are winning. PARC predicated this, “We know this stuff will be revolutionary, we don’t know what will be more powerful, but we do know that it will be much easier to propagandize and fool the public.”
PARC was right about that!