Riccardo Savona
In our busy and whirling lives, there are some things that we generally don’t stop and reflect upon. Do we live in a society in which we are administered, unconsciously, a daily dose of “news”? Before everyone here starts closing their web browsers or start reading this into any event in our daily life (like I have been doing), it is important to show that even in the most unthinkable places there are reminders of the latest events. Even our beloved college email account has a small window telling us what’s happening in the world!
The 'online' generation
Whether we are just information junkies, there is one thing that is clear, and that is that times have changed. Ok, maybe it’s true that this sentence has been over-used in those drama- packed love films that we all like to watch, but in this case things have really changed. If we think of our grandparents for example, they did not have in their youth what we have here today. The most they could have relied on would have been a daily newspaper or, maybe, the news on television. They definitely could have not explored for example, the depths of our lovely University Times Online.
But to show how the huge amount of media sources is affecting us and broadly speaking society is not an easy task. If there is one thing that can be said, is that this “media bombardment” is affecting not only us but the whole media industry. People frantically check the websites in order to see the latest updates, and thus editors and journalists need to be always up and running, ready to write new articles to meet the demand. This results in, what some could say, a decline in the quality of what is being written. Others claim that this “media bombardment” is characterising an ever so increasing cultural homologation, not only at a national societal level, but also international level in a sort of “global village”, according to the famous concept conceived by the Canadian author Marshall McLuhan.
And then there is us, avid readers, being overloaded with this constant influx of information, of which probably only 10% is being retained. Our thirst for knowledge of what is going on in the most remote areas of the world is being satisfied only at a superficial level, leaving us dry, wanting for more and more information and news, in what could be described as a vicious cycle.
The traditional way of getting news
But the circulation of all of this information and news has not only had detrimental effects, and this is clear especially when looking at the broader picture. It is important to remember that through all of these mediums, more and more people are able to acquire knowledge of events that otherwise would have proven very difficult if not impossible to obtain.
The media flow has shown that, at least in theory, there is a more democratic nature at both ends of the “production” chain. And this is because at one end there isn’t a monopoly by only one news company to spread the information and at the other end the consumer is free to choose which newspaper, channel, website to get his information from.
There is also one other final aspect on the democratic nature of the widespread media, which sensitises our views on other realities that are very different from ours. It unifies people fighting for the same causes around the world, like the wikileaks phenomenon and the uprising in Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries have shown.
It would seem that through all of these different media, even the most powerful and tyrannical Big Brother is disarmed against the fast growing technology of this Information era.
