Comments on: From Tiger Accident to Incident, shame on us

By: bluegreenblogger

bluegreenblogger — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 17:33:25 +0000

I don’t doubt anymore that the concentration of ownership of mass media has had a big impact on the commoditisation of public image. Those who package produce, and sell image are no less involved in packaging the news, and culture, and basically the mass media ’space’ that as you pointed out is the only pasttime for large swathes of the population. There is little to choose between news and noise. It is an industry waiting for the cue to pile onto any sort of noise, whip up the ’story’ and sell lots of advertising. It sucks! The response is, of course, the devaluation and erosion of mass media outlets. Blogs like yours’ mine, and ten million others are eating market share with actual, not pre-fabbed content. I guess, and hope that this is the way forward, to re-capture the minds eye of the populace, and revert to a more ‘real’ interactive, and splintered public space.

By: danbaril

danbaril — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:52:07 +0000

Bluegreen, I don’t disagree with you. But the blame in part has to rest with those who are only to happy to consume (read as demand) the smut in the first place as a form of entertainment. What may be a “boring pastime” for you is what, for a majority of others, is their only pastime. To those who produce the stuff, they live by the adage “the audience is never wrong.” That it passes for journalism is what’s scary.

By: Bluegreenblogger

Bluegreenblogger — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:49:09 +0000

The Romans had their Circus, we have celebrity baiting. And why these celebrities enjoy such a hold over the broadcast media, and our ‘affections’ is beyond me. It is truly a world ‘through the looking glass’. I cannot think of a more boring pasttime than watching the painful details of ‘celebrity’ foibles unfolding on the screen. I think I will turn off the broadcast news again, while the PR industry consumes and trashes it’s own product for awhile.