Is The Internet Killing The American Elite?

I think that the Internet provides both "high quality news blogs" and complete drivel: vaccine scares, birther conspiracy theories, moon landing hoaxes, etc. Unfortunately, with a little effort both of these general categories look the same on your web page. Is that link a legitimate post discussing immigration or propaganda from a white supremacy site? The challenge for the average person who has limited time in their busy life is to figure out what is high quality and what is trash. IMO, this has led to a magnified ability to "tell the big lie." Now you can tell a lie and point to the Internet as support. Of course the Internet will also debunk your lie, but a quality debunking takes time while the Internet will repeat your lie a million times in a heartbeat. A perfect recent example is the plane that went down over Egypt. The Internet has loudly proclaimed that 1) it was an external explosion, 2) the pilot and plane were not at fault 3) ISIS did it as retaliation for Russia's actions in Syria. Of course buried in there somewhere is "no one has any data to support any of that" and "it takes very sophisticated weaponry to take out a plane five miles up", but who's reading that far down? I think that for those who want to research and understand issues, the Internet is a godsend. For those who only pay scant attention and skim the surface, the Internet is a source of confusing and sometimes intentionally misleading material that may foment rebellion, but more in the way a mob randomly destroys as opposed to a focused effort to improve the world.

There is a lot of crap out there, but also a lot of good stuff. Is it your argument that people cant tell the difference because it is the internet? After all good papers have always coexisted with tabloids, and you cant deny that good papers are here because tabloids are also here. Why should this truth be altered because the media is the internet and not paper and ink?

Please clarify because on the surface your argument is unsound.

EDIT: I would be sympathetic to the argument that things are different because of time, not media, that the problem is that people are on the whole more dumb now.

whatmakes youthink that "corporate media" (in some form) will not be around?
I see that a Netflix monopoly (or HULU or COMCAST ) will just be another way of asserting undue influence via the large revenue streams they hoover in.

Dude, it was a question not a statement.

No, the antidote is good education so people can think for themselves. What you have now are poorly educated people, like you and Gungasnake, scouring the internet for anything that confirms their prejudices.

You don't even know what the elite are, given the opportunity you suck up to the elite whilst attacking the educated. You've turned into a perfect little drone.

This question supports the statement that I commented upon. "Corporate media" will rise with whatever the media opportunities present it.
DO you think that Ford MOtor company is not targeting you with ads and is busily using and learning what the internet is capable of doing , so tthey may further seduce you?

All these whiz kids arent just making up games or birthing new social media platforms. Most are being sucked up by corporations with large media interests.

Can you spell naive? (cuz I cant)

We always knew the difference between the newspapers and the tabloids. Now, you don't know. Is that news blog you are looking at quoting a real reporter doing real work or made up "facts" coming from a conspiracy website? I read this in the comics over the last couple of days. (You can read this comic here.)




As to the mainline media, there are no news blogs without news. At the end of the day, someone has to actually do reporting. The "Internet" is not doing that. They may call attention to stories that didn't make it to the front page of your local newspaper, but just about all of the substantive news you read online has a traditional media component. If you want a fireman saving a cat in a tree, you can get that off of youtube and instagram. If you want to read about problems with the firemen's pension program, someone needs to do work.