Comment Fine line between Target Audience and Inbred Opini (Score 4) 127
(Seems to be a problem with my registration and non-acceptance of cookies...)
While the /. model of news-gathering certainly works for me, there is an insidious danger to these 'topical screeners' that leaves me uncomfortable. One of the effects of the Internet has been to allow geographically disparate soulmates to find each other. The flip side of the coin is that it has allowed geographically disparate cranks to find each other, and freed them to incestuously recycle hateful/misguided/plain wrong ideas without being subject to the scrutiny of contrary opinions.
/. is an encouraging model of open discourse, and even so its partisan leanings (in aggregate) are clear for all to see.
More troubling are nakedly political sites ie the Consertive site mentioned in the article. The explosion of the Internet has allowed rabid dogmas to flourish, freed from critical analysis that restricted fora of the pre-wired age required. News gatherers take the step one further, as they allow and encourage 'real-world' events that support a particular ideology to be sampled, discussed and internalized in isolation without context in the greater culture. This allows us all to build unreconcilable 'true' pictures of culture that clash when rubbed against those outside that filtered embrace.
I posit that the internet, and specifically this agregation of limited world-views can ultimately lead to a more contentious, less consentual and increasingly isolated society.
For all their inherent biases and corporate corruption, traditional news services were more successful in keeping a cultural perspective alive through reporting diversity. Or at least the majority culture, which, while in some ways despicable still encourages a common touchstone over segregated enclaves of unassailable thought.
But anyway, I like geek stuff, so I'll still read /. I'll just fidget while I do. ;]
JJMcC
While the
/. is an encouraging model of open discourse, and even so its partisan leanings (in aggregate) are clear for all to see.
More troubling are nakedly political sites ie the Consertive site mentioned in the article. The explosion of the Internet has allowed rabid dogmas to flourish, freed from critical analysis that restricted fora of the pre-wired age required. News gatherers take the step one further, as they allow and encourage 'real-world' events that support a particular ideology to be sampled, discussed and internalized in isolation without context in the greater culture. This allows us all to build unreconcilable 'true' pictures of culture that clash when rubbed against those outside that filtered embrace.
I posit that the internet, and specifically this agregation of limited world-views can ultimately lead to a more contentious, less consentual and increasingly isolated society.
For all their inherent biases and corporate corruption, traditional news services were more successful in keeping a cultural perspective alive through reporting diversity. Or at least the majority culture, which, while in some ways despicable still encourages a common touchstone over segregated enclaves of unassailable thought.
But anyway, I like geek stuff, so I'll still read
JJMcC
