Member-only story
What ‘The Media’ Does Wrong
Trust is placed in people, not institutions
For the general public, one of the most maddening aspects of media is “the media.” In fact, when someone starts a sentence with the words “the media,” you know what’s about to be said won’t be good.
It used to be a bit easier to separate out what was reported in newspapers, seen on television or heard on the radio. But now that all the different news formats have taken up residence in the digital realm, what we have is the world at our fingertips, brought to us in a manner where it really, truly, pretty much all looks the same.
About ‘the media’
The old formats gave us a definitive start and end to the news: For television, your local news started at 5 p.m., followed by national at 6 p.m. A printed newspaper had only so many pages, and when you flipped to the back cover, you knew you were done and it was time to get on with your day.
Today? News continuously loads on your screen, follows you around, and never stops filling your head with the white noise of the day’s events.
The frustration is so understandable, it’s palpable.
Yet, “the media” is not a valid term. And it’s certainly not a worthwhile endeavor to expend energy blaming “the media” for anything, whether it’s…
