Chapter 7 of The Elements of Journalism introduced us to the concept of "Argument Culture". I found the entire chapter interesting, but the idea that shouting matches and not-always-civil debate had, and is, been condoned and encouraged by not just the general public looking for a new form of entertainment but also by those entrusted with the dissemination of news and information, somewhat unsettling. I understand that news is a commodity, and as such has, to a certain extent, be run like a business, however when television programming is operating within this Argument Culture partially because it is cheaper, verification of facts can fall by the wayside because there is a greater emphasis on furthering that culture that brings in money rather than checking facts. That idea is somewhat discouraging if not unsurprising. One of the reasons that news programs aren't frequently on at my house is because they often seemed to be peppered with bickering. Are they all that way? Certainly not, but I guess in this instance I operate under the "one bad apple can spoil the bunch" mantra.
I still see the significance and value in journalism being a public forum, however. I agree that it will be important for journalism as a whole to expand the foundational values of correct facts and contextual details (184) to that forum. I also thought the point that there is potential in the future for the public to correct one another. Hopefully this will be done politely or at least respectfully, but I think the concept of a conversation could ultimately provide new insight and perspective (perhaps questions raised that hadn't been considered) that we would otherwise be lacking.
I definitely agree that the whole idea of Argument Culture is unsettling. I know I should watch more news on tv, but with so many shows being a group of people sitting in a circle and shouting their opinions at one another I've been turned off to tv news. I just want to know what's happening, I don't really care about your opinions. I'm ok with civilized debates between to people of opposing political views, but it seems like those are turning towards the Argument Culture as well. I'm not ok with the news turning into an episode of Real Housewives...just the news please!
ReplyDeleteFor a long time, I lost interests in reporting news because I thought there were too much information. I felt overwhelmed. I didn't know the meaning of producing so many pieces of news. I read some articles about the meaning of debating. Those articles refer that debating is a way for the society to make progress and people will be affected potentially even they didn't want to admit this fact.
ReplyDeleteI detect a labeling problem here: when two people are shouting at each other on TV, is this a news show? Or is it an opinion show? I would argue the latter.
ReplyDeleteI can completely understand why you would approach it as non-news when it turns into shouting matches between people, but I think you hit the nail on the head when you referred to it as entertainment instead of news. I think the back-and-forth debate aspect has an appeal to some - it gives the news drama - but suddenly I'm not sure what the facts are anymore.
ReplyDelete