Author, teacher and Internet public intellectual Clay Shirky recently published an essay on the demise of the American newspaper, "Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable." The thesis of the piece recently appeared in New York magazine; Emily Nussbaum cited it in her TV review essay on Jon Stewart "Talk Show Fatigue: Only One of Late Night's White Guys is Doing Anything Vital or New."
Shirky's nugget: "Society doesn't need newspapers. What we need is journalism."
I agree.
I would submit that what you hear on ANY radio station-outlet other than NPR, or what's on ESPN...or pundit/personality driven shows on CNN/Fox/MSNBC/CNBC ain't journalism. And yes, forget trying to find it on 95% of the blogs out there. Whether you seek wingnut news, or the succor of all things liberal or ethnic, or what to know the latest on Chris Brown and Rhianna or how to crochet. Note also--much of the demise of newspapers (along with the book publishing industry) has less to do with young people not reading than the fact that (1) the parent corporations tried to run them in robber baron fashion and (2) the parents had toxic lovers whom were financial advisors and/or major debt or equity holders in these very media companies: hedge funds, greedy commercial banks, corrupt investment banking houses like Goldman Sachs, Lehman Bros., Bear Stearns.
Your thoughts?
