Koppel summarizes the new media and Society

From King's MMQB column:

Ted Koppel gave the commencement address at UMass:

More than ever before, we live today in a world of instant reaction, constant judgment and corrosive partisanship. Political debate is a wonderful thing; but partisan shrieking is corrosive and destructive. If we are to find solutions to the challenges we face, we have to relearn the virtues of compromise. If we are going to deal intelligently with the problems we confront, we need time to pause, to consider and reflect. But our media, news and social, are intolerant of anything but an instant response ... Rather than using information to illuminate the world, though, we consume it like fuel. The more we burn, the faster we go. The faster we go, the less we see and understand. We slow down only for the accidents along the side of the road; and the biggest accident still lies ahead.

Only, I fear, when that occurs -- only when the combined impact of too many unemployed, too many foreclosures, too much debt, exacerbated by two undeclared and unfunded wars; only when the human and social costs of a crumbling education system and a flawed health care system, leave us wondering where and why we lost our footing as a nation, will we come to realize that WHAT is communicated to us is vastly more important than the medium by which it is conveyed.

... One day, most Americans will point at us in the news media and say: "Why didn't you tell us? Why did you encourage all that bile and venom? Why did you feed us all that trivial crap, when so many terrible things were converging? And no one will be happy with the answer. Least of all, those of us who offer it. "What we gave you," we will say, "is what you wanted."

At this critical juncture in your lives, then, let me urge you -- no, let me implore you to want more. More substance, more real information about important issues, more fairness, more objectivity, more tolerance for views that differ from your own. You have a truly magical array of media at your disposal. Use them well.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/peter_king/05/21/mmqb/index.html#ixzz1vWQCBoQ4

I love that. People look at the substance of what is being disseminated.

 

And it came from a guy who did his fair share of sensationalism.

 

Yeah, building his ratings on the national obsession about who killed Buckwheat.

Anyhoo, he is dead on. And it will be written off as graduation-day platitudes

 

"He was a quiet man. Kept to himself."

"Do you think he killed Buckwheat?"

"Absolutely. It's all he ever talked about."

 

. . . all of which was said about television, too. And radio. And the printing press.

 

And was, to a greater or lesser extent, true. The Internet is just worse, and faster, and more intensified than the mediums that preceded it. That it's happened in less drastic ways before doesn't mean we shouldn't examine and acknowledge the detrimental way it's shaping the national dialogue.

 

So all is well with the Internet, Az?

 

Surely not.

But we adapted to those preceding technologies and survived, so I'm optimistic about our ability to adapt to this one.

 

Well, one part of adapting is acknowledging issues, things that should be adapted from. Is anything he said false?

 

The big difference being that the business itself adapted and survived, and really without a lot of tumult. For the most part the new technology let reporters bring us more of the world. And that is plainly not the case these days.

 

No. But it was all true of television too - the medium which gave us Ted Koppel.

 

True except for the dozens upon dozens of differences. I don't think TV cuts into programming every two minutes with the latest, unconfirmed rumor. I don't think I can just start my own television station for $75