INFORMATION
PROCESSING
As a result of the audience’s ability to directly contribute to news seen by the public, the manner in which information is processed by audiences has changed. As stated in the article “Journalism: Power without responsibility” by Kenneth Minogue, “It [journalism] indelibly marks our first response to everything. It dominates television and surrounds us in the vast publishing industry of popularization” (1). Minogue referenced in his article, as a society we have allowed for the internet to influence the way the world around us is perceived (par.4). Whenever we get exciting or even horrible news, the first place we turn to is our various social media platforms to share the information with the world. Whether it is because of a desire to make those around us envious or more understanding of our situation, the intent has created this need to communicate with strangers.
Mentioned in the audience direct contribution sectioned, the public has helped over saturate the news through the internet. We now have the ability to pick whom we want to listen to and whom to ignore. The use for journalism now is to diffuse important information and current events has been replaced by the need to process all the large amounts of information that people are constantly receiving (Minogue, par.35). As Minogue explains, “But the journalist takes up a posture notionally above the battle, and therefore thinks he has little difficulty avoiding the obvious peaks of partisanship with which he is familiar, so long as he can recognize them” (par.35). Because there is now a constant stream of information in the public’s face, people now rely on the journalist to filter out the false and inform them on the truth.
Work Cited
Minogue, Kenneth, et al. “Journalism: Power without Responsibility.” The New Criterion, newcriterion.com/issues/2005/2/journalism-power-without-responsibility.