Well, OK, Ms. Dee. You've confirmed for me that the Internet has spawned a variety of toxic sludge, some of it sophomoric, some of it hate (disguised as intellectual wisdom), some of it purely trolling drivel and most of it useless in improving the common weal. Our current state of media environment is divided between two separate oceans of information. The one you discuss is the one developed over the past 36 years since Rush Limbaugh introduced malinformation for fun and huge profits. It metastasized into national AM talk radio, then Fox news and was force multiplied by the Internet. Millions of media illiterate voters swim in this ocean. You use the term "weaponize" in your post and indeed, the First Amendment has been weaponized and is being used against the democracy and the marginalized in our republic. There are solutions but it must be done by smart people of good intent.
Yes, agree with talk radio. I didn't touch on that in this piece, was speaking more of the "meme" register -- BUT -- you may enjoy this that I worked on with Taylor McMahon:
Thank you, Ms. Dee. Although somewhat frustrated by the recorded technical issues, I wound up reading the transcript and got all the way through the episode. I had never heard of Art Bell, but then again, I'm not an insomniac or overnight shift worker. I have no doubt that millions of his listeners were transfixed by a radio personality who treated their stories with respect and continued to cover stories that the mainstream media wouldn't usually cover. However, and now the other shoe drops with a thud, I can't say that what he did was good for the common weal. Paranormal, conspiracy theories, reincarnation, UFO abductions, et al are entertaining at most but do damage to one's media literacy. It has been my contention for the past 10+ years that the disintegration of the democracy is due to the malinformation industry. Art Bell doesn't seem malicious but he certainly encouraged listeners (and callers) to slip into a place where parsing the information chaff from the grain was discouraged. I frequently use this James Madison quote to bolster my position about the malinformation industry: "A democratic republic requires a well-informed electorate." Much of what Art Bell did was counter to producing a well-informed voter.
Oh, there shouldn't have been any technical issues! Curious what you experienced there.
I disagree ... especially since his cultural and political commentary was so grounded. Though I am both an especially big fan of his and interested in the paranormal world as well.
Well, OK, Ms. Dee. You've confirmed for me that the Internet has spawned a variety of toxic sludge, some of it sophomoric, some of it hate (disguised as intellectual wisdom), some of it purely trolling drivel and most of it useless in improving the common weal. Our current state of media environment is divided between two separate oceans of information. The one you discuss is the one developed over the past 36 years since Rush Limbaugh introduced malinformation for fun and huge profits. It metastasized into national AM talk radio, then Fox news and was force multiplied by the Internet. Millions of media illiterate voters swim in this ocean. You use the term "weaponize" in your post and indeed, the First Amendment has been weaponized and is being used against the democracy and the marginalized in our republic. There are solutions but it must be done by smart people of good intent.
Yes, agree with talk radio. I didn't touch on that in this piece, was speaking more of the "meme" register -- BUT -- you may enjoy this that I worked on with Taylor McMahon:
https://default.blog/p/first-time-caller-an-art-bell-tribute
And of course, the actual political content/ideology-side is its own complicated history.
Thank you, Ms. Dee. Although somewhat frustrated by the recorded technical issues, I wound up reading the transcript and got all the way through the episode. I had never heard of Art Bell, but then again, I'm not an insomniac or overnight shift worker. I have no doubt that millions of his listeners were transfixed by a radio personality who treated their stories with respect and continued to cover stories that the mainstream media wouldn't usually cover. However, and now the other shoe drops with a thud, I can't say that what he did was good for the common weal. Paranormal, conspiracy theories, reincarnation, UFO abductions, et al are entertaining at most but do damage to one's media literacy. It has been my contention for the past 10+ years that the disintegration of the democracy is due to the malinformation industry. Art Bell doesn't seem malicious but he certainly encouraged listeners (and callers) to slip into a place where parsing the information chaff from the grain was discouraged. I frequently use this James Madison quote to bolster my position about the malinformation industry: "A democratic republic requires a well-informed electorate." Much of what Art Bell did was counter to producing a well-informed voter.
Oh, there shouldn't have been any technical issues! Curious what you experienced there.
I disagree ... especially since his cultural and political commentary was so grounded. Though I am both an especially big fan of his and interested in the paranormal world as well.