It's Not the Same

There's little argument that in the current internet environment that our population is more informed than ever. However, being informed and being educated are totally different things. Information is coming at everyone from everywhere. Unfortunately, most of it is not worth much. It takes an educated individual to be able to determine what part of that information has value. 

One sees many others calling for more young people to go the trade school route. There's nothing wrong with that. We need more trades people. And many high-school graduates are cut out for something less than a college degree. But you also hear voices discounting the need for a formal education. They essentially are saying that many degrees, after years of heavy investment, are worthless. Let's pump the brakes on that for a few minutes.

If we, as Americans, want our country to continue to be a world leader, we had better have folks educated in all of the various disciplines provided by a college education ready to lead. If, instead, we want people who have no background in the various core-curriculum offerings of a college bachelors degree to be our leaders...well, you will get what you get. We are bombarded every day with information provided by "every day experts" online. Do they consider themselves experts? Maybe. Are they? Not unless they've put in the time and study to be one on the topic. 

The concern I have in writing this is that we are becoming increasingly influenced by information that is more emotional expression than scholastic. If one involves themselves in social media in almost any form, you see it constantly. One sees memes and statements of political position that are entirely based on a one-sided, and usually uniformed, view of the world. Opinion-based information is dominant online, and becoming more prevalent in traditional media as well. A strong background of widely-accepted knowledge is necessary to evaluate these presentations. 

Short of a college degree, those who are voracious readers, or seekers of expertise in a field, certainly have the capacity to be intelligent consumers of information as well. We all have highly-intelligent friends whose life experience, and/or appetite for knowledge has separated them from the crowd. But the standard way for young people to be exposed to the humanities, social science, natural science, the arts, math, and other knowledge important to a well-rounded and capable individual, come from more than experiences and family-and-friends fed opinions.  

The dumbing down of America is happening. All we have to do is compare ourselves to the achievements of those in other countries in almost every field. The lack of emphasis on effective teaching and learning at the elementary and secondary level is frightening. This, in my opinion, leads to the vulnerability of the population to radical influences and underachievement of our youth. Being an intellectual consumer of the vast amounts of communication presented in 2022 is important to whether we will have children who can, and will, lead America effectively in 2042. 

Journalism Death Spiral

When I took a journalism course at SIUE, as part of my mass-communication program, there were many reasons to study it and many legitimate uses and outlets for the knowledge. Things are changing...and not for the better of our country and society in general. 

Google journalism and you will get this definition- the activity or profession of writing for newspapers, magazines, or news websites or preparing news to be broadcast.

Newspapers? Nobody younger than 70 reads them anymore. Magazines? Pretty much the same story there. Websites? There is precious little actual journalism that matters going on there. Broadcasting? News broadcasts on radio and TV are foreign territory to people under 40. As we say frequently in the mass-comm classes I teach at SWIC, "The internet changed everything." As part of that..."Social media changes everything even further." 

Commonsensemedia.org says--Teens get their news more frequently from social media sites (e.g., Facebook and Twitter) or from YouTube than directly from news organizations. More than half of teens (54%) get news from social media, and 50% get news from YouTube at least a few times a week. 

So, it doesn't take much to believe traditional media is in big trouble. Small town newspapers are going out of business every day. "Mom and pop" radio stations that actually cover local news can't make money and most have been sold off to some church or gone dark long ago. Websites that offer an attempt at journalism like the New York Times and Washington Post are owned by big media conglomerates and usually fall into presenting a liberal or conservative agenda to carve out a profitable audience. The television networks, both cable and broadcast, are bending to the same approach. More locally, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (StLToday.com) and Belleville News-Democrat (bnd.com) have pay-walls, low subscription rates, and awful staffing issues that make it difficult to find anything approaching journalistic excellence. 

Part of the mission in journalism, and this is no revelation, is the watch-dog function. Keeping an eye on the government goings-on and activities of elected officials is key to how we operate in America. How many people have you heard lately say.."I'm going to the city council meeting because I'm interested in making my voice heard and watching my city council person vote when it comes to making decisions." Not many I'll bet. So having reporters (print and broadcast), columnists, and show-hosts, involved in the process is vital to shining light on it all. 

Social media is just that...social. It has no mission when it comes to truthfulness in disseminating information or investigating government activity. You get what you get...and usually from totally unreliable sources who are attempting to influence the consumer in some way. 

The person, or company, who finds a way to re-invent journalism in a way that's profitable will be a hero in the 21st century. Factual and valuable information written or broadcast in a way that raises the level of public consciousness and awareness is drowning in a sea of worthless messages thrown around on cell-phone apps. Somehow our younger population must also be educated to believe that constantly staring at Tik Tok or other short-burst entertainment options on their phones only makes them more vulnerable to the vultures who would influence them and provides little in the way of societal value.

Some might say the days of 3 television networks, a handful of TV stations per major market, and thousands of local radio and newspaper operations were no bargain. They might say people are more informed than ever with internet information available at one's fingertips all the time. My response would be, "But what is the real value of that information? Has it been vetted for credibility? Did anyone bother to get the other side of the story? Did the source of the information actually do some homework...or just offer a personal opinion?" 

Real journalism matters; otherwise those with evil intentions and personal agendas have the upper hand. There's a reason freedom of the press was given constitutional protection in the early days of this country. My fear is there is a dwindling "professional press" to enjoy that freedom and provide a valuable product to America.