
Graham Ring laments the way news is consumed in the twenty-first century…
Buying a newspaper these days is like buying a coffee: You must first choose the style and flavour you prefer so that a product can be identified to satisfy your requirements.
A sizeable chunk of the population has a taste for the Murdoch broadsheet. Those with deeply conservative views find the fare on offer at the Australian very much to their liking. Climate change scepticism, cynicism about trade unionism – and a slice of tangy Janet Albrechtsen opinion for dessert.
In the opposite corner are those who prefer to get their version of the news from the Guardian: Compassion for asylum seekers and a determination to reduce carbon emissions quickly and substantially. All garnished with a spicy serve of David Marr.
What we once knew as the ‘Fairfax press’, known for such mastheads as the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald, now derided as the ‘Channel nine papers’, falls somewhere in the middle of the yawning gulf between the Oz and the Guardian. However, the Herald’s editorial decision to go front page with television entertainment stories calls into question its very credibility as a journal of record.
If you are one of the many that get most of their news on-line then the magic of the algorithm will ensure that you are served up ever more of your favourite dishes. Guardian gourmets are much more likely to receive Tim Flannery than Tony Abbott. Similarly, those who favour the flavour of the Oz will receive the wisdom of John Howard rather than the thoughts of Tim Costello.
Consequently, many of us exist happily in our own little echo chambers, receiving only the diet we demand to confirm our existing views. Our positions harden by the day, as the idiocy of those who hold different positions is made ever more apparent by the tasty morsels thoughtfully served up by the algorithm.
Buying a newspaper these days is like buying a coffee: You must first choose the style and flavour you prefer so that a product can be identified to satisfy your requirements.
A sizeable chunk of the population has a taste for the Murdoch broadsheet. Those with deeply conservative views find the fare on offer at the Australian very much to their liking. Climate change scepticism, cynicism about trade unionism – and a slice of tangy Janet Albrechtsen opinion for dessert.
In the opposite corner are those who prefer to get their version of the news from the Guardian: Compassion for asylum seekers and a determination to reduce carbon emissions quickly and substantially. All garnished with a spicy serve of David Marr.
What we once knew as the ‘Fairfax press’, known for such mastheads as the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald, now derided as the ‘Channel nine papers’, falls somewhere in the middle of the yawning gulf between the Oz and the Guardian. However, the Herald’s editorial decision to go front page with television entertainment stories calls into question its very credibility as a journal of record.
If you are one of the many that get most of their news on-line then the magic of the algorithm will ensure that you are served up ever more of your favourite dishes. Guardian gourmets are much more likely to receive Tim Flannery than Tony Abbott. Similarly, those who favour the flavour of the Oz will receive the wisdom of John Howard rather than the thoughts of Tim Costello.
Consequently, many of us exist happily in our own little echo chambers, receiving only the diet we demand to confirm our existing views. Our positions harden by the day, as the idiocy of those who hold different positions is made ever more apparent by the tasty morsels thoughtfully served up by the algorithm.
Consequently, many of us exist happily in our own little echo chambers, receiving only the diet we demand to confirm our existing views
What is missing increasingly is the public space for robust exchange of honestly-held views. Where do things get thrashed out? How do we test our assumptions? Who ensures that the source of our information is credible? Who is on guard to ensure we are presented with all the relevant information about an issue – rather than just the bits we are going to approve of?
The most frightening manifestation of this trend is the alarming phrase “I get all my news from Facebook.” Not to put too fine a point on it, this is the precondition for the decline of civilisation.
The most frightening manifestation of this trend is the alarming phrase “I get all my news from Facebook.” Not to put too fine a point on it, this is the precondition for the decline of civilisation.
The most frightening manifestation of this trend is the alarming phrase “I get all my news from Facebook.”
The most frightening manifestation of this trend is the alarming phrase “I get all my news from Facebook.”
Woe betide us if we forsake the capacity to cogitate. The opposable thumb on its own will not be enough to negotiate the troubled terrain of the twenty-first century.