A Case Study in Apathy

       It is in my humble opinion that the media is what it is because we allow it to be that way.  I guess it could be argued that whistle blowers like Manning are few and far between because journalists face too large a penalty for exposing secret documents. It's the governments fault! No wonder members of the press don't like to say anything too controversial.  After all, Manning was doing the world a favor; getting the truth to the people. This is something to be commended for, not imprisoned for.

      Daniel Ellsburg, on the other hand did not go to jail.  He was, and is commended to this day for the leaking of documents that led to.... Well it didn't really lead to much, did it? I mean, he had a lot of support from his fellow Americans, and his actions are looked upon as courageous. He was thought of as someone doing a service for his country. But what did the people do with the alarming information brought forth in the documents he leaked.....NOTHING. More than nothing actually, they voted for Nixon in the next presidential election despite the documents that clearly undermined his honesty and integrity. Why? Because the public has a tendency to listen to the news, talk about it over dinner and then never think about it again. It's not that we can't handle the truth, its that we only care about it for a very short period of time. We don't think or talk about it long enough do anything meaningful about it.
      

      So then the next argument could be made that the press has failed as a medium for democracy. But this can't be true when looking at situations like Ellsburgs. He leaked the documents, the newspapers ran the stories even when they knew punishment would be imminent, the stories were published over a considerable time period and there was tons of publicity on the matter. It seems that all of these factors should have lead to an almost immediate reaction, either by the Nixon administration to pull out troops, or the public looking to push for an impeachment. That didn't happen. Oh well, I guess they could have at least voted for a new president next election in reaction to the news..... Nope! That didn't happen either. He won by a landslide!
      
      It is not that the press has failed as a medium for democracy, it's the public's failure for not caring enough about democracy in the first place to even want a medium for it. And the Elsburg case is a perfect example of this. So is it the media's obligation to inform us?  They do on less controversial topics like global warming, but you don't see everyone rushing out to buy a smart car do you? In Fact, it's the opposite, people are buying bigger cars than ever. Public apathy is far too high for the media to care about facts, and even when they do, society doesn't.

The blogosphere: Good for journalsm?

The blogosphere is a curios phenomenon that is a relatively new concept for me. Before today I have maybe read 10 blogs in my lifetime and this seems to shock some people when they hear this. When I told a friend this they responded by saying. “[W]hat, have you been living under a rock or something?” This comment made me laugh since I believe that it’s because I haven’t been living under a rock that I never got involved too much with blogs or things of that nature. Now that I have a blog, I feel like I have a voice. There are a lot of people out there who are completely opposed to the blogosphere. Why? It’s a great way to make your opinion heard, what’s wrong with that? If you don’t like it, don’t read it! When this is looked at in greater detail we may come to the conclusion that the blog haters have barely any idea what they are raging against. Don’t get me wrong, I know there is a lot of garbage to sift through on the internet, but that could be said for all forms of journalism, not just blogging. And just the fact that I have associated blogging with journalism just now may piss some people off since many would say that blogging is not journalism.

 Whether blogging is journalism or not is hard for me to say simply because I do not know. I could make an argument for both sides, although I would have to say that I think blogging has the potential to be the best form of journalism. One thing I am sure of is that the Blogging vs. journalism debate will go on for a long time.

When we look at the journalism that bloggers do we see that serious bloggers aren’t really all that different from traditional journalists. It could be argued that Blogging is the “fresh water” for journalism since it brings back the idea of the investigative journalist. An idea that has been lost over the years due to mounting political pressures put on news outlets to simply repeat information given to them.

One of the highest ideals that journalism holds is objectivity, but with blogging, opinion is at the focal point for most people. Some would call this a problem in the world of journalism since blogging has taken a very different stance on the way it gives us information. But maybe it is time to get rid of objectivity for a while and get back to some good ol’ common sense thinking instead of mindlessly providing information. This is definitely the strength of the blog and that’s why it gets so much attention.

Democracy is losing ground to idiocracy in Wisconson state senate

Protesting is now ramped in Wisconsin as tens of thousands of its citizens have taken to the streets to show their disgust of the proposed 2011 Budget Repair Bill. Republican governor of Wisconsin Scott Walker argues that the cuts and benefit hikes are necessary to get the state out of a $137 million deficit, and if these steps are not taken, the deficit will look more like $3.6 billion by 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/us/01wisconsin.html? What Walker is neglecting to talk about is the over $100 million dollars in tax breaks he gave to corporations and rich business men this year alone. So, when Walker argues that these measures are necessary to balance the budget, it is understandable for the middle and lower class people living in Wisconsin to be more than a little upset.

The idea of a democratic America seems to be increasingly on the verge of extinction when looking at Scott Walkers proposed bill. Corporate America is becoming more and more influential in the issues surrounding national and international policy. The line must be drawn and Wisconsin has reached a point of no return in regards to the decisions that policy makers such as Walker are trying to get away with. Walker should have a vested interest in the citizens he was sworn in to serve, not corporate America. After all, it was the working class that voted him in as governor, not the latter. Democracy only works if the majority of the people within that democracy are being represented, and Wisconsin is only a small example of this. Protests all around the world are popping up in regards to wages, job availability, and job dependability. If Walker is not careful, protests could escalate, and other countries like Egypt and Tunisia have verified this. Although they are extreme examples, even a fraction of the violence that has been seen in those countries showing up in Wisconsin could be catastrophic. History has shown time and again that the people tend to come out victorious in situations such as these, and I have no doubt that history will repeat itself in Wisconsin as well.