Hello all,
I was listening to a podcast of Q by Jian Ghomeshi for November 18 2009 and he had on documentary film maker Chris Atkins whose recent film Starsuckers was about the news hoax and raised some interesting questions about how the 10 minute news cycle and the overall news quality.
Atkins and his posse bring into question the ethical practice of sensational media by planting fake stories to the media. The majority of these fictitious stories were published in tabloid and regular media outlets. Atkins points out one of the major flaws in the 10 minute news cycle and their desire to break the story first many media outlets do not even bother checking their sources. As a result,people are becoming wary about what they read in the media.
This reminded me of the discussion that we had in Ron's class a few days ago about the H1N1 shot and why people are not trusting the mainstream media. How can we as journalists undo the damage caused by sensationalism? How will people determine what is and what isn't a trustworthy source of news? As the influence of media becomes increasingly diluted through the internet and citizen journalism continues to rise the lines between what is truth become increasingly blurred.
What can we do do to make a difference? Will anything that we do make a difference? Even Jian didn't have the answer.
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