Snow challenges media on Freedom of Speech
Posted on November 6, 2007 in Media, Politics by DM
I found a link over the weekend to Tony Snow’s remarks as he accepted the 2007 Freedom of Speech Award from The Media Institute.
Snow is President Bush’s former White House Press Secretary and, prior to that, was host of a news analysis program on FoxNews. In his remarks, Snow links declining newspaper, television and cable news audience numbers to the notion that most of America no longer believes they are getting the “true scoop” from the mainstream media (MSM).
He lays out four distinct reasons why the mainstream press has evolved away from its original pedestaled position as “champion watchdog.” What I found most compelling, though, was how closely the evolution of social media has matched that of the traditional press. Snow offers this “recap” of how the MSM has evolved:
In the early days of this nation, the press was wild, untamed, and omnipresent. Papers sprouted everywhere, and not even Ben Franklin could resist the temptation to turn his printing presses into devices for spreading gossip, maligning political enemies, and entertaining readers with items ranging from the important to the grandly weird.
Then came a period of consolidation and gentrification. Moguls controlled major media outlets and a handful of elite institutions – the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and the three television networks – shaped and defined not merely what counted as news, but what counted as acceptable opinion. The press lost its Wild West flavor and became what Tom Wolfe described as “a Victorian gent.”
Lately, we have returned to the Wild West, thanks to the advent of new media, and nobody knows quite how to handle it. Ideas and controversies are erupting from every pore of American society – from blogs, talk radio, internet news and chat sites, and online video forums. The rich no longer have a monopoly on distributing ideas and views; everyone can do it, and millions are.
But here’s the kicker: Snow’s new “Wild West” is already following the same path of self-destruction (or at least self-absorption) that the mainstream media followed, only this time the evolution is much more compressed :
1. “…wild, untamed, and omnipresent.” Blogs were new, social media were new, everyone could suddenly have a blog, comment on a blog, etc. It was exciting - there were no rules, those without a voice suddenly had one. And used it.
2. “…period of consolidation…”Google and Yahoo! are gobbling up new media sites as quickly as the sites can get launched. (Subscribe to Mashable for just one week to get an idea of what I mean.)
3. “…and gentrification…” There have just this year been calls by some bloggers to suggest to others that certain codes of ethics, certain guidelines, and certain “play nice” rules should be followed in blogging.
So while Snow thinks blogs and talk radio are the new frontier, I see the new frontier already being taken over by - and indeed becoming - the giant corporations (HuffPo, anyone?) I don’t know where that leaves “the people,” but the next big communication revolution better be coming up quick.
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4 comments to “Snow challenges media on Freedom of Speech”
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Interesting thoughts - I still think we are in the midst of the “new frontier”. I think you are seeing a new communication revolution in YouTube now.
Shane, YouTube is certainly emerging as one of the more powerful social media tools. Video in general is a really interesting sub-genre of social media. In addition to sites like YouTube, manifestations such as Video blogging (Hot Air.com and others) are particularly interesting to me. I really appreciate you stopping in to comment, hope you will do so again soon! ~ Janet
Hi, you just put me on your blogroll, but I moved my blog yesterday. The link in above. Sorry! I’m going to put you on mine too.
Thanks, Shane, I updated the blogroll!
Janet