{"id":2975,"date":"2011-06-05T19:57:50","date_gmt":"2011-06-05T23:57:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/?p=3928"},"modified":"2023-04-30T12:29:34","modified_gmt":"2023-04-30T16:29:34","slug":"media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/2011\/06\/media\/","title":{"rendered":"Media"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"1926<\/a>
1926 Milliken radio tower<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It dawned on me, earlier today, that the current decline in radio and all traditional media in general, is no coincidence. \u00a0When the radio consolidations took place ten or so years ago, the first thing that was almost always cut or eliminated was the newsroom. \u00a0Along with that, local programming in general was reduced or replaced with automation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This, in turn, leads to a bland, uninformative product that the general public doesn’t really care about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local newspapers have all but disappeared too. \u00a0The remaining ones are owned by one of several large newspaper-holding companies like Gannett, Newscorp, \u00a0Hearst, and Tribune. \u00a0 In a similar radio scenario, local papers were bought up by these companies, newsroom staff was cut, the quality of content declined, and readership declined accordingly. \u00a0Rinse, and repeat until the paper is nothing but a shell of its former self, filled with mostly used car ads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But isn’t the internet the cause of all this? \u00a0No, the internet and the so-called “new media” are filling a void left by the hollowed-out old media. \u00a0New media, which often relies on people who may be well-intended, but do not have the training in investigative journalism, often lacks credibility when it really counts. \u00a0Unfortunately, it is easy to search the internet and find articles that lack any type of referenced source material or have other technical problems that call into question the authenticity of the material. \u00a0Much of this could be corrected with the right links or posting of original documents to back up the story. \u00a0This is an often pointed to weakness with internet sources of information. \u00a0There are, however, some outstanding new media outlets, from some surprising locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Media outlets (as well as most other businesses) in this country are mostly controlled by big Wall Street banks.  Here is how that works:<\/p>\n\n\n\n