Is mainsteam media irrelevant today?

[DrZoidberg]

I think Michael Moore summed the election up the best.

"Everyone must stop saying they are "stunned" and "shocked." What you mean to say is that you were in a bubble and weren't paying attention to your fellow Americans and their despair. YEARS of being neglected by both parties, the anger and the need for revenge against the system only grew. Along came a TV star they liked whose plan was to destroy both parties and tell them all "You're fired!"

Trump's victory is no surprise. He was never a joke. Treating him as one only strengthened him. He is both a creature and a creation of the media and the media will never own that."

I'll admit that I was stunned and shocked about the Trump victory, so I was obviously living in a liberal middle-class bubble. It's hurts to admit it. But there you have it. It happened and I'll have to own up to it. I blame the sources for my information. The moderators of knowledge, the media. They gave me faulty information. Probably due to them wildly overestimated their importance. All the polls were obviously shit, because they all indicated a walk-over victory for Clinton. So the way we (ie society) inform ourselves about public opinion today is wrong.

To me, that is terrifying. It's like we can't be sure of anything anymore. How are we supposed to inform ourselves in the future? But I don't think the media created Trump. I think social media did. So that cat is out of the bag. So the future belongs to demagogues? No less terrifying.

Where do you get your information and how do you know it's reliable?

 

[Horatio Parker]

I think Michael Moore summed the election up the best.

"Everyone must stop saying they are "stunned" and "shocked." What you mean to say is that you were in a bubble and weren't paying attention to your fellow Americans and their despair. YEARS of being neglected by both parties, the anger and the need for revenge against the system only grew. Along came a TV star they liked whose plan was to destroy both parties and tell them all "You're fired!"

Trump's victory is no surprise. He was never a joke. Treating him as one only strengthened him. He is both a creature and a creation of the media and the media will never own that."

I'll admit that I was stunned and shocked about the Trump victory, so I was obviously living in a liberal middle-class bubble. It's hurts to admit it. But there you have it. It happened and I'll have to own up to it. I blame the sources for my information. The moderators of knowledge, the media. They gave me faulty information. Probably due to them wildly overestimated their importance. All the polls were obviously shit, because they all indicated a walk-over victory for Clinton. So the way we (ie society) inform ourselves about public opinion today is wrong.

To me, that is terrifying. It's like we can't be sure of anything anymore. How are we supposed to inform ourselves in the future? But I don't think the media created Trump. I think social media did. So that cat is out of the bag. So the future belongs to demagogues? No less terrifying.

Where do you get your information and how do you know it's reliable?

Coming from the rustbelt, I know very well the frustrations that Moore talks about. But I don't think Trump will do anything for those people.

And I'm surprised they think so. They not only won't get any factories or jobs, but their costs will go up. Further deregulation will cost working people. In the end, they'll be worse off.

Some are saying Trump will distribute goodies, but he has to go through Congress. I doubt they'll pony up, unless there's a recession(which is a good possibility).

 

[DrZoidberg]

Coming from the rustbelt, I know very well the frustrations that Moore talks about. But I don't think Trump will do anything for those people.

And I'm surprised they think so. They not only won't get any factories or jobs, but their costs will go up. Further deregulation will cost working people. In the end, they'll be worse off.

Some are saying Trump will distribute goodies, but he has to go through Congress. I doubt they'll pony up, unless there's a recession(which is a good possibility).

I think it's way deeper than that. Sweden has an almost identical situation. Our third biggest political party, SD, are super racist. We're struggling to explain that. I have theories. But I don't think it's about the economy. Not at all. I think it has to be about perceived unfairness and perceived corruption. Mostly lies. But they buy into it.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Ya, I'm reminded of the story from 1980 when an old lady from New York said "How did Reagan win? I don't know a single person who voted for him".

The mainstream media clearly doesn't pay attention to a large chuck of the country and, as a result, the impressions about the country for people who use this media as a tool to get information are skewed and unreliable. We want to have our opinions and knowledge based on facts but, if the outlets we're trusting aren't giving us those facts, we're really ending up no better than Fox News viewers.

Now, few of us have the time to go to fifty different media outlets to get our information and the smaller the outlet is, the more likely it's going to be inaccurate one way or another anyways, so that's not really a solution. We need to demand that mainstream media do its job. When they tell us that the mood of the country is X, we need to be confident that it's X and not Y. When they tell us that Issue A is what concerns Americans, we need to know that Issue A isn't actually irrelevant and they're concerned about Issue B.

 

[Underseer]

The media's pro-Trump bias pretty much created the Trump presidency. The American media is more than useless, they are a threat to democracy.

Honestly, I hope Trump goes through with his treat to put journalists in jail. That would be poetic justice, wouldn't it? They put Trump in the White House, and he rewards them by throwing them in jail. It would be perfect.

 

[DrZoidberg]

The media's pro-Trump bias pretty much created the Trump presidency. The American media is more than useless, they are a threat to democracy.

Honestly, I hope Trump goes through with his treat to put journalists in jail. That would be poetic justice, wouldn't it? They put Trump in the White House, and he rewards them by throwing them in jail. It would be perfect.

Wut? What pro-Trump bias? To me it looked more like they were all taking turns shitting on him

 

[Horatio Parker]

The media is doing what it's supposed to do: earn money through advertising.

What's all this high minded public purpose stuff?

Those two birds can't be killed with one stone.

 

[Horatio Parker]

Coming from the rustbelt, I know very well the frustrations that Moore talks about. But I don't think Trump will do anything for those people.

And I'm surprised they think so. They not only won't get any factories or jobs, but their costs will go up. Further deregulation will cost working people. In the end, they'll be worse off.

Some are saying Trump will distribute goodies, but he has to go through Congress. I doubt they'll pony up, unless there's a recession(which is a good possibility).

I think it's way deeper than that. Sweden has an almost identical situation. Our third biggest political party, SD, are super racist. We're struggling to explain that. I have theories. But I don't think it's about the economy. Not at all. I think it has to be about perceived unfairness and perceived corruption. Mostly lies. But they buy into it.

I think you have a different problem.

I don't think the gun wavers here are dangerous. They only want to dish out bullets, not take them. A nuisance, in the end.

 

[DrZoidberg]

The media is doing what it's supposed to do: earn money through advertising.

What's all this high minded public purpose stuff?

Those two birds can't be killed with one stone.

But they can only do that if people read them. And people will only read them if they find them trustworthy. Nah, I don't think it's that easy. They have an incentive to be correct. and right now they're not. The top journalists don't know any better what's going on than the rest of us. Right now they've lost their function.

This is a seismic shift in the power dynamics of our world. I'm sure the media will adapt eventually, but it will be a different media landscape than what we're used to... whatever is the result.

- - - Updated - - -

I think it's way deeper than that. Sweden has an almost identical situation. Our third biggest political party, SD, are super racist. We're struggling to explain that. I have theories. But I don't think it's about the economy. Not at all. I think it has to be about perceived unfairness and perceived corruption. Mostly lies. But they buy into it.

I think you have a different problem.

I don't think the gun wavers here are dangerous. They only want to dish out bullets, not take them. A nuisance, in the end.

So how are they different?

 

[TSwizzle]

I think Michael Moore summed the election up the best.

"Everyone must stop saying they are "stunned" and "shocked." What you mean to say is that you were in a bubble and weren't paying attention to your fellow Americans and their despair. YEARS of being neglected by both parties, the anger and the need for revenge against the system only grew. Along came a TV star they liked whose plan was to destroy both parties and tell them all "You're fired!"

Trump's victory is no surprise. He was never a joke. Treating him as one only strengthened him. He is both a creature and a creation of the media and the media will never own that."

I'll admit that I was stunned and shocked about the Trump victory, so I was obviously living in a liberal middle-class bubble. It's hurts to admit it. But there you have it. It happened and I'll have to own up to it. I blame the sources for my information. The moderators of knowledge, the media. They gave me faulty information. Probably due to them wildly overestimated their importance. All the polls were obviously shit, because they all indicated a walk-over victory for Clinton. So the way we (ie society) inform ourselves about public opinion today is wrong.

To me, that is terrifying. It's like we can't be sure of anything anymore. How are we supposed to inform ourselves in the future? But I don't think the media created Trump. I think social media did. So that cat is out of the bag. So the future belongs to demagogues? No less terrifying.

Where do you get your information and how do you know it's reliable?

An interesting discussion.

Anyway, the main stream media pretty much poo-pooed Trump and lead people to believe that HRC was a shoe in for the Whitehouse. They (and Clinton's campaign) just weren't paying attention.

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

The mainstream media still has relevance, just less than before and less than they want. They had the power to determine what the discussion is, but the internet has broken their role as gatekeeper of the the discussion. Now we have stories getting wide coverage that would normally be suppressed.

The last election was a warning shot, but the media still managed (with lots of hard work) to exercise control. This time the story got away from them. People saw what happened last time around, and turned away between then and now.

They do still have relevance, because the politicians will still only turn to the mainstream media, but stories and candidates that the media wants us to ignore will now get coverage.

 

[blastula]

Mainstream media is very relevant, they gave Trump $billions of free air time. He owes a lot of his victory to establishment media.

 

[TSwizzle]

Mainstream media is very relevant, they gave Trump $billions of free air time. He owes a lot of his victory to establishment media.

Shitting on him at every turn.

 

[blastula]

Mainstream media is very relevant, they gave Trump $billions of free air time. He owes a lot of his victory to establishment media.

Shitting on him at every turn.

Not really, they aired his rallies live constantly without interruption or rebuttal of his gish gallop buffoonery.

 

[Horatio Parker]

But they can only do that if people read them. And people will only read them if they find them trustworthy. Nah, I don't think it's that easy. They have an incentive to be correct. and right now they're not. The top journalists don't know any better what's going on than the rest of us. Right now they've lost their function.

Oh they knew. It was just going on to a greater extent than anyone realized. And not by all that much - but enough. This was not landslide.

I think it's way deeper than that. Sweden has an almost identical situation. Our third biggest political party, SD, are super racist. We're struggling to explain that. I have theories. But I don't think it's about the economy. Not at all. I think it has to be about perceived unfairness and perceived corruption. Mostly lies. But they buy into it.

I think you have a different problem.

I don't think the gun wavers here are dangerous. They only want to dish out bullets, not take them. A nuisance, in the end.

So how are they different?

I don't think fringe racist groups here are a serious problem. If they are in Sweden, that's the difference. Other than that, I wouldn't know.

 

[repoman]

Trump turned them into an ally that he also portrayed as a villainous enemy, something a person with Trump's personality flaws does with aplomb:



This picture is indicative of it, I am posting it NOT as a endorsement. It is truly fucked up and personally I think wearing it should be a chargeable offense of "direct(?) incitement to violence" with a least a couple years of jail time and status of a felon.

 

[DrZoidberg]

I think Michael Moore summed the election up the best.



I'll admit that I was stunned and shocked about the Trump victory, so I was obviously living in a liberal middle-class bubble. It's hurts to admit it. But there you have it. It happened and I'll have to own up to it. I blame the sources for my information. The moderators of knowledge, the media. They gave me faulty information. Probably due to them wildly overestimated their importance. All the polls were obviously shit, because they all indicated a walk-over victory for Clinton. So the way we (ie society) inform ourselves about public opinion today is wrong.

To me, that is terrifying. It's like we can't be sure of anything anymore. How are we supposed to inform ourselves in the future? But I don't think the media created Trump. I think social media did. So that cat is out of the bag. So the future belongs to demagogues? No less terrifying.

Where do you get your information and how do you know it's reliable?

An interesting discussion.

Anyway, the main stream media pretty much poo-pooed Trump and lead people to believe that HRC was a shoe in for the Whitehouse. They (and Clinton's campaign) just weren't paying attention.

Obviously mainstream media wasn't paying attention either, and that's their one job.

 

[dismal]

This is pretty good:

Had Hillary Clinton won, there’s be a winking “we did it” feeling in the press, a sense that we were brave and called Trump a liar and saved the republic.

So much for that. The audience for our glib analysis and contempt for much of the electorate, it turned out, was rather limited. This was particularly true when it came to voters, the ones who turned out by the millions to deliver not only a rebuke to the political system but also the people who cover it. Trump knew what he was doing when he invited his crowds to jeer and hiss the reporters covering him. They hate us, and have for some time.

And can you blame them? Journalists love mocking Trump supporters. We insult their appearances. We dismiss them as racists and sexists. We emote on Twitter about how this or that comment or policy makes us feel one way or the other, and yet we reject their feelings as invalid.

It’s a profound failure of empathy in the service of endless posturing. There’s been some sympathy from the press, sure: the dispatches from “heroin country” that read like reports from colonial administrators checking in on the natives. But much of that starts from the assumption that Trump voters are backward, and that it’s our duty to catalogue and ultimately reverse that backwardness. What can we do to get these people to stop worshiping their false god and accept our gospel?

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/comment...ness-of-the-press-presidential-election-2016/

 

[Trausti]

This is pretty good:

Had Hillary Clinton won, there’s be a winking “we did it” feeling in the press, a sense that we were brave and called Trump a liar and saved the republic.

So much for that. The audience for our glib analysis and contempt for much of the electorate, it turned out, was rather limited. This was particularly true when it came to voters, the ones who turned out by the millions to deliver not only a rebuke to the political system but also the people who cover it. Trump knew what he was doing when he invited his crowds to jeer and hiss the reporters covering him. They hate us, and have for some time.

And can you blame them? Journalists love mocking Trump supporters. We insult their appearances. We dismiss them as racists and sexists. We emote on Twitter about how this or that comment or policy makes us feel one way or the other, and yet we reject their feelings as invalid.

It’s a profound failure of empathy in the service of endless posturing. There’s been some sympathy from the press, sure: the dispatches from “heroin country” that read like reports from colonial administrators checking in on the natives. But much of that starts from the assumption that Trump voters are backward, and that it’s our duty to catalogue and ultimately reverse that backwardness. What can we do to get these people to stop worshiping their false god and accept our gospel?

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/comment...ness-of-the-press-presidential-election-2016/

The Internet is the great equalizer. It provides so many alternative perspectives and critiques of the media. And comment sections. Glorious comment sections, where readers can point out to others the biased viewpoint and missing information in the reported news. There's a meme out there that Donald Trump is a comment section come to life against the article. Funny.

 

[J842P]

The media's pro-Trump bias pretty much created the Trump presidency.

Dude, if you think the media had a pro-Trump bias, you are clearly living in an alternate reality.