Thursday, June 09, 2005
The Sixth(?) Estate
Over at the Civic Forum, Joe has some good thoughts on my post below about the Pulse story on Enterprise South.
To get philosophical (which is sort of what this blog was supposed to be, back in it's early days), the idea of unchecked anything in a democracy strikes me as a bad idea. So, we develop a sort of cyclical system - the media watchdogs the government and corporations and reports to the people about what is going on. That system alone worked fine in America for a good bit of time. But then, media began to succumb to its corporate nature, and the lively media became monolithic (some towns - like Chattanooga - lasted longer than others). So, you find publications like the Pulse in Chattanooga and Metro Pulse in Knoxville, even the City Paper in Washington, that serve as another outlet for news and keep an eye on the bigger media. The Pulse has been doing quite a good job of this, and it's to be commended. Local blogs are starting to pick up that slack, too.
But the Pulse also has a responsibility to its readers. Many of them probably don't read the paper or even watch TV news regularly. Even if they do, most probably don;t delve into the business section to read some fun economic development stories. But that's where a story like the one in the Pulse comes in. Contrary to the snarky title of my post, I love that the Pulse is writing stories about this, and about the mosque in Dalton. This is a great thing. But, given that they may be someone's only fleeting exposure to a topic, it is even more incumbent upon them to get it right. They don't have to play it like (in their words) Ye Olde Times Free Presse, but they need to play a story at the proper volume.
And that's what (I think) you have geeky bloggers like us for. Just to help steer the ship, even a little with what little expertise we may have.
To get philosophical (which is sort of what this blog was supposed to be, back in it's early days), the idea of unchecked anything in a democracy strikes me as a bad idea. So, we develop a sort of cyclical system - the media watchdogs the government and corporations and reports to the people about what is going on. That system alone worked fine in America for a good bit of time. But then, media began to succumb to its corporate nature, and the lively media became monolithic (some towns - like Chattanooga - lasted longer than others). So, you find publications like the Pulse in Chattanooga and Metro Pulse in Knoxville, even the City Paper in Washington, that serve as another outlet for news and keep an eye on the bigger media. The Pulse has been doing quite a good job of this, and it's to be commended. Local blogs are starting to pick up that slack, too.
But the Pulse also has a responsibility to its readers. Many of them probably don't read the paper or even watch TV news regularly. Even if they do, most probably don;t delve into the business section to read some fun economic development stories. But that's where a story like the one in the Pulse comes in. Contrary to the snarky title of my post, I love that the Pulse is writing stories about this, and about the mosque in Dalton. This is a great thing. But, given that they may be someone's only fleeting exposure to a topic, it is even more incumbent upon them to get it right. They don't have to play it like (in their words) Ye Olde Times Free Presse, but they need to play a story at the proper volume.
And that's what (I think) you have geeky bloggers like us for. Just to help steer the ship, even a little with what little expertise we may have.
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