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Fanta SYLLA
English 1
Marty Richards
First draft
Summary of Bad Days for Newsrooms and Democracy
SUMMARY
The article Bad Days for Newsrooms and Democracy written by Chris Hedges
describes and claims the decay of Journalism (more precisely newspaper) and its effects on
Democracy in the United States. According to Hedges there are several factors that created
the degradation of newspapers. The facts show that there is a degradation of both quantity
and quality. There is a lesser demand of newspapers and a change of the nature of
journalism.
Chris Hedges states that the Internet is not an efficient option for Journalism,
because the techniques used for reporting and writing or not as efficient as the one used in
newswriting. Internet is one of the factors of the decay of newspaper since its easier to
access and cheaper. There is a deep discrepancy between web browsing and newspaper
reading that stems from the fact that people take more time and focus more on the
newspaper.
In Hedges view Internet changes the fundamental nature of Journalism that is to be
an unbiased source of information. To him, blogs and web journalism are ideologically
driven, thus there is a lack of accurate information. There goes the dichotomy
between opinion and knowledge for which Hedges stand. Journalism is about giving
knowledge to the people, knowledge about what is happening in the political sphere and
outside the borders of the United States.
Another factor of the degradation of newspaper and Journalism is the rise of the
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corporation. Hedges, many times on this article, emphasizes the fact that Journalism is a
public trust that should not be privatizes by the market. However, corporations have made
a business out of Journalism, Journalism as a private good. Thus people are not demanding
for reality but illusion. Hedges clearly despises the transition of Journalism to an
entertainment market used to amuse people.
In the last part of the article, Hedges points out how Journalism is necessary to
Democracy as a whole. Journalism must be the link between the citizen and the politician.
Journalism, according to the author, must be reliable and accurate so that we can know how
to act in society. Journalism should create rational human beings focused on the political,
social issues etc. Hedges makes an analogy between the fall of Rome and the decay of our
Democracy to make his point. Journalism as a tool to entertain through amusement events
can be dangerous to that it focuses people on subjects that wont help construct and built a
better society.
RESPONSE:
As a whole I would say that I agree with the article. Hedges is passionate about this
subject because it affects him directly, as a result he doesnt weigh his words. However
there are a lot of arguments on which I disagree. First of all his idea of Internet as a ghetto is
really dismissive for the people who live in a ghetto and who do not necessarily stand in
the stereotype of what we usually see in the media. Internet, according to me and my
personal experience, can be a reliable source. There are a lot of bloggers whose will is not to
endorse an ideology but on the contrary creating debate among people. I know that Internet
raised my interest on feminism and race issues and how they are intertwined, something
that I have never seen on newspapers. There is reactivity on the Internet, on such
platform like Tumblr, where you can react to an article posted by someone and debate. This
reactivity does not exist with the newspaper. You cannot interact with the author of the
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article, ask him question, engaging a talk with him/her.
Secondly, something that Hedges doesnt point is that people who can read
and understand a newspaper article are actually privileged. I think that most of the people
who read such newspaper as the New York Times are educated. He doesnt understand that
he has the privilege to see that todays Journalism is degraded because he was privileged
too. However not all Americans have access to education and they can be easily fooled by
inaccurate news.
There is a reason why Fox News is the main network in this country. Most of his followers
are not academically educated thus dont have the basis for relying on what is true or what
is false. There are certainly a lot of problems with Journalism but the people are not the
only one to blame, the system is.
Overall Hedges makes a lot of statements but doesnt give a lot of solutions or
answers. I think the point of this article is to make a harsh point and engaging a debate
about the state of Journalism but it had to be followed by solutions. When he states the fact
about celebrities and gossip news he doesnt really analyze why are people so interested in
those kind of information. Why are they not interest in the risks or nuclear war, or the
genocide of Darfur, or the fact that Sudan has been separated in two different countries?
Traditional journalism has to be changed too. Its core value, the goal of saying the truth,
does not have to be changes.
Nonetheless it has to be said that saying the truth in 1998 is not the same of saying the truth
in 2011 because we dont live in the same reality anymore. Reality is harsher and harsher
so its kind of a natural reflex to not look at it. Maybe one the solution is to change how to
bring trustworthy news to people. How to make them face what is going on in the world.
To conclude, I will say that I understand the message of this article and I agree with
it but in the mean time his way of saying it is not most efficient, it can be seen as a lot of
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whining.