Response – Week 2

I think that agenda setting takes place at all publications but I think some are more conscious of what they are doing than others. I have worked for a number of publications who tried hard to be objective and tell lots of different stories and not just the most popular ones for their readers. Meghan wrote that she worked for a magazine who decided to change her list of salons to cover since the ones that she originally picked were not advertisers. I have never seen this happen in a newsroom that I have been part of. First of all, the advertising people and the editorial people are on different floors and dont really communicate with each other. Also, people are really aware of what it looks like when we right stories about people that advertise heavily. That doesnt mean a story (positive or negative) doesnt pop up now and again about someone who advertises a lot (Macys for example) but no one does it on purpose. I think the biggest problem that comes about is the “media circus” that can come about for certain stories. Everyone is really competitive and wants to get the story first. So, if one station is going to do a story everyone else wants to beat them to it or just do a better job reporting it. Another reason for a smaller story to get blown out of proportion in recent years is the fact that there is less manpower. With the number of layoffs, buyouts, and budget cuts organizations are looking to their partners for content. This means that a tv station, radio station, and newspaper will run the same story. What is more disturbing to me is the sharing of content between organizations that used to compete against each other. In South Florida The Miami Herald, Sun-Sentinel, and Palm Beach Post all share content. The written stories are not always exactly the same but the pictures might be, or vice versa. The lack of competition makes me wonder if quality content will start lacking. People need a little bit of healthy competition to keep their standards high. Because of the economy along with overall industry changes I think it is hard to keep a balance between running stories that are popular and others that are important, but maybe not as popular.

“As the infusion of mass media information into a social system increase, segments of the population with higher socioeconomic status tend to acquire this information at a faster rate than the lower segments, so that the gap in knowledge between these segments tends to increase rather than decrease.” I think the best way to level the playing field is through research and money. We need to figure out how different demographics get their information and figure out a way to distribute information across the social economic lines. I think this will take money because most likely its all going to be over the internet and you need a computer or mobile device to get the internet. But, with the speed of technology maybe internet will get so cheap that everyone could afford it and the problem is solved. Of course who knows how future technology will change distribution of media in the future.

Media is becoming too commercialized. It seems like it is getting more expensive in some ways to get access to the news. A newspaper used to cost 25cents and could be read by many people as it is passed along. It is getting to the point where people have to go online to get a lot of content. Although much of it is free you have to get that internet connection. I am really torn because part of me thinks that information should be free but another part of me thinks that people should pay for content (like people pay for cable television). Newspapers were cash cows back in the day. Even as little as ten years ago newspapers had so much money they didnt know what to do with it. It is because they have not figured out how to adapt to the internet quickly enough, and more importantly utilize advertising that they are having problems. I hope that it gets figured out in the near future because I think that the media is an important part of society and journalists should get paid to produce content.

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