Paying for news may have negative effects
by BenthamiteMay 7th, 2009 at 4:26 PM
Filed under: News Story Commentary, Other Discursive Dialogue
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Murdoch, News Corp CEO, just stated that online news sites will soon require paid subscriptions. "The current days of the Internet will soon be over" (CNN). Here's the article. This news caught me by surprise since I'm someone that views CNN.com daily. I think the idea of paying for news access poses many problems. What will this new pay requirement bring about? I'm thinking it will cause volunteer news sources to emerge, with concepts similar to that of Wikipedia. However, how will we ensure the integrity of such journalism, and there are likely to be difficulties faced in gathering news without the financial baking of a large corporation and government. For example, try getting an interview with the Taliban or gaining access to a highly controversial business fraud case. Consider that most of our society is uniformed to begin with. Now image the consumer types that paying for news will create: --The uninformed: A person that cannot afford a news site subscription --The biased: A person with a single subscription to one source --The informed: A person that can afford many subscriptions If news will be subscription-based, then what is the point in having "fair and balanced" news? Patrons of a particular source won't, to be frank, give a shit if it's fair or not. They will just want news from the same source they're accustomed to. They may even want an increase in bias. By hampering free access to various sources (unless one can afford it) we will more or less have information armies---media companies that essentially brainwash society with different perspectives or dare I say ideologies. What ramifications could this state have on government of society and elections? Essentially the most popular media sources would determine the voting results.  Another point to consider is that pay-for-news may further define the social classes and may even cause the gaps between them to widen. Just when we thought that the internet, our gateway to all the information we can dream of, the savior that gives all persons equal footing in terms of having a change to learn, Murdoch steps up like the Antichrist and declares that corporations intend to shatter that short-lived vision by building walls to information access. I will bet that the trend of building walls to information access will catch up rapidly throughout the Web, no matter the nature of the Web site. It's a matter of commerce: profit or people once again, it seems. I know that Google has presented themselves, in many lights, as a company that wants to help humanity by offering free access to many types of information. However, Google wears a mask as well. A dream of free information and the opportunity that it can provide may have just been something our generation was fortunate enough to live in momentarily, while our future generations will be the ones that pay for it. Here is some information elaborating on potential dangers of the information revolution. |
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News Bias Explored
Visit (http://www.umich.edu)
The Global Information Society Project
Visit (http://www.global-info-society.org)
Murdoch: Web sites to charge for content (CNN)
Visit (http://www.cnn.com)
Visit (http://www.umich.edu)
The Global Information Society Project
Visit (http://www.global-info-society.org)
Murdoch: Web sites to charge for content (CNN)
Visit (http://www.cnn.com)
Sounds like a few people on this sight.