Friday, January 31, 2014

Jay Rosen the well informed Media Dragon


"The cult of the individual is now almost as great a social crime in the West as it is a political crime in the East. This is unfortunate, as the cult of the individual is the basis of all art."
~ John Whiting, At Ease in a Bright Red Tie: Writings on Theatre(courtesy of George Hunka)

We don’t have a news system that keeps us informed and helps us grasp the stories we care deeply about. We have one that floods us with reports on a schedule that makes sense for the manufacturers of news. Individual journalists are aware of this problem, but they are working within a system that is not set up to address it. There’s been a power shift in media. We don’t watch TV anymore when the networks decide to put their shows on. The users are more like the boss in my “keep me informed” parable. But in news this shift has been incompletely carried through. Stay informed & Save Time

"I suggest that the voice you hear today in all branches of literature is not the individual voice but the collective voice. And this especially from any writer under forty. In other words, the writer has become the spokesman not for himself but for a group, an organisation, a class or a sect. The danger is that some don't know they are doing it, and those who do know often consider, and are led to consider it a virtue. 'This young man speaks for his generation.' 'This young woman is the rallying point for all young women with big feet.' You know the sort of thing."
~ John Whiting, At Ease in a Bright Red Tie: Writings on Theatre(courtesy of George Hunka)