In conventional usage, the media deliver an information flow. The term information goes with thought, cognition, knowledge. It sounds as hard and objective and masculine as emotion sounds soft and subjective and feminine.
Many commentators today think of the mind as an information processor. But what if we tease apart the notion of information?
We see into our current situation more deeply if we consider information as something that happens within a human setting, something that people approach, seek, develop, employ, avoid, circulate and resist. We do live in an information society, but no less, if less famously, it is also a society of feeling and sensation, toward the furtherance of which information is sometimes useful.
It is a clear fact that information is getting cheaper, easier and closer in our age. Everyone became an information source. Using all sorts of tools such as; internet, television, newspapers, books; people have the chance to harmonise the information from all of the sources and transfer it to their own ideas. It is impossible to isolate yourself from this flow.
ReplyDeleteHaving variety of sources; force people to make analysis on the issues. This analysis become peoples ideas and messages which they pass to their environment as informations. So everyone becomes an information source. But how we can separate individual prejudices and experiences from information itself? Is it too much to expect this responsibility from everyone? Overall the flow of information can be named as interaction between each parts of the society. The scary part is globalisation. With the evolution of communication, we are face to face with the entire world as an information source. The flow of information is getting bigger and bigger everyday.
Just in that point, it is important to underline that, what we call as information doesn’t necessarily reflect the truth. In a realistic point of view, we should be honest about the proportion of the truth between all of the information we get. How realistic is to expect truthiness from all of our sources?
When it comes to media and journalism things are getting more complicated compare to the individuals. It is clear that most of the times reading an article is not enough for no one. The things should be spiced with photos, graphics, videos, sounds, animations…
The tricky part is although we have all the supportive elements like videos and interviews, should we suppose to believe without a doubt what we watch in television or what we seen in the internet? The power of editing started to break the flow of information. People as the receptors of the messages are more sceptic about the news they get.
Information is one of the indivisible parts of our everyday life. Media is deeply interrupted in our lives and this has its advantages and disadvantages at the same time. I am truly concerned that every human being has his/her mind filter that means that we sort the received information according to our margin of appreciation. Out of the data we receive on the daily basis we accept only those ones that are of a primary importance for us.
ReplyDeleteThing that we call “information” actually is the main factor in causing different emotions in people. So to my point of view information basically is not only the news and a story but also something that our mood is depended on.
In spite of the fact that information itself does not represent a substance entity and it could be considered as an abstract phenomenon, information represents a valuable object. It should be mentioned that information can be sold and by the way, it is noticeable thing that lots of people are involved in the informational business and in most cases it is even the main source of their income.
Information may as well be considered as a broader concept including emotions.
ReplyDeleteIf somebody is sad excited etc. he is giving us the information about his emotional condition. As we live in an information era where data flow is becoming more and more overwhelming, I believe we live in more emotional era as well.
People who are prone to feel some kind of the emotion all the time create information. As much as they try not to show them they may convey their attitude through posture, body language etc. This may not be always visible but I believe that every piece of information is followed by the certain emotion. Even neutrality can be conceived as an emotional response.
Journalists are often required to hide their emotions and obviously this is a skill that could be learned. Thus, emotions can be suppressed up to a certain level but I do not think that this makes information a strong masculine concept.
The acclaimed American sociologist Todd Gitlin writes about the hunger for information not as an end in itself but as a mean to satisfy us and to give us a kind of sensation. This notion in itself is not revolutionary: why would we seek information if we did not get some kind of positive inner reward from it? We would not be motivated to search for information beyond that concerning our direct surroundings such as weather, local news and possibly national news. „Personal interest stories“ or things happening in places that do not immediately touch us would simply not be consumed where it not for the pleasure and satisfaction issue.
ReplyDeleteGitlin speaks of today‘s media as a „ torrent“ that is unprecedented. This is doubtlessly true as information streams are getting ever faster, more direct and easier to access. The never-ending accessibility of information at any given time and place becomes more and more taken for granted. Media has indeed become the familiar world of many.
Is information consumption as a mean to still the need of sensation something problematic? Not necessarily but it can be if it biases the kind of information we consume to a degree that keeps us from reading news that matter immediately. Is it a new development? No, personal interest magazines have been around for long, the trend has just been put to its extremes through increased availability of media.
Most importantly, has become the search for a positive feeling become the main driver for media consumption? No, it has probably always been if we define it in a broad way, for example as the satisfaction of being knowledgeable.
We can see, write and feel information everywhere. Whether are people speaking about certain issues or not, they could get information behind each corner of the street. The question is, whether the information they get are really useful and if the information affects their life. If not, it is just like the wind – it could return back, but it has only refreshment effects. This is happen when we speak for example about celebrities. If they are not living in neighborhood, we could say, the people do not care whether they have a dog or not. It is interesting to know, but nothing more, nothing less. It must be shocking to attract the readers or viewers. So sensation has a strong effect how to attract tie viewers or readers. When we write some kind of information, one of the principles is to be close.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking about information flow it is necessary to mention, that importance is a fact that must be stressed. Is the information that I bring to people important? It could be important, but if not, it would be forgotten for another they. That means that information society can read about each part of the world. So they could know about the life in forgotten places and so on. But the thing is to write stories that people would really care about. But when we are in serious journalism, how to investigate and how to be close to people? This question starts in local and regional media.
In this point of view, local newspapers, television or radios are the closest one to bring the information that influence everyday life in the region. They are the ways how to national media could have contact with the local issues. In order to solve the common issues in region they might be helpful to bring the stories, to speak about the stories. So the question is, what information people are really searching for? It seems that making a sensation today makes a sense, because people are interested in shocking things. But we are human beings and each has the right for the privacy. Feel of sensation is a task for journalist if they want to write about somebody. How would affect his life or life of his/hers family? Ethic and ethical approach are not always seen in the stories. Information values should be seen in the context of everyday s life. For some television channels are important to be shocking. That is why the first news of the day starts with “someone killed the other one” and after that they put news about retirement issues in country.
Monika
Information era; that’s not merely a title we’re describing our time with; it’s more of a self-explanatory description of what we’re all currently living in.
ReplyDeleteWe have reached an over-whelming phase in which we became saturated with information that we take it for granted at most times. Defining what information is became almost an impossible task to do.
It’s being more like a stock market; one of information that’s bombarding us all around & keeps changing every single second, that it’s turning into quests, in the sense of trying to make the maximum out of it & trying to get in as much as one’s mind can absorb & process.
I believe, because of that over-saturation, we tend to seek some kind of a counter-action, in an attempt to search for a more balanced society. And by saying that, I comply with the author that our society now is having a more ‘feminine emotional’ aspect to it; probably on a higher level than in older days-as paradoxical as that may sound.
But, this is how it goes; you want to see, hear & feel the information; you need to have it stand out in a rather ‘affectional’ plain.
I would finally like to add to that, the word “literacy”; because, I believe, it doesn’t really resemble literacy in its conventional connotation any longer; but rather, it‘s one’s capability to know that information exist & to know how to deal with it; which might as well be our biggest challenge.
“The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses”, Malcolm X.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, Information/media today has become one of business worlds and society’s most important resources.
In today’s world, we know people cannot live without Mass Media or information.With the help of technological improvements sending messages to the masses is becoming easier.
Therefore,technology in the news media is a real important thing in order to get information to as many people as posible throughout the world.
Secondly,we depend a great deal on the news for information on tons of topics that get us through everyday life. Throughout the years news media technology has changed dramatically.
Next,Information is any type of pattern that influences the formation or transformation of other socio-economic, political and behavioural patterns. In this sense, there is no need for a conscious mind to perceive, much less appreciate, the pattern.
In conclusion,by Information/Mass Media I mean ‘the whole body of media reaching large numbers of public’ the major ones being newspapers, television and the World Wide Web also known as the internet.
As I mentioned that the internet is part of information, I would like to add that In the 21st century, as the true potential of the Internet is just starting to be tapped, we’re seeing its impact on democratic processes in new and exciting ways. The Internet is providing opportunities for voting online; spreading awareness of lesser-known candidates for public office; permitting citizens to easily petition the government on important issues; helping police fight crime; allowing the public to weigh in on state budget priorities and government regulatory proposals; and making Congress and congressional campaigns more transparent.
Labinot Hajdari