How The Media Rage Machine Divides America: Chris Stirewalt
May 23, 2024
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Political journalist Chris Stirewalt discusses the evolution of media landscape and its impact on American democracy, highlighting the rise of biased online journalism and the need for diverse perspectives. He emphasizes responsible news consumption, challenges in journalism, and the divisive effect of media polarization on personal relationships.
Traditional news decline led to rise of tribalistic rage media.
Local news loss affects governance and economics, prompting need for diverse news consumption.
Deep dives
Media Consumption Habits and News Bubble
Many Americans have shifted away from traditional news sources like TV and radio, embracing rage media that feeds sensationalism and tribalism. The rise of social media and news bubbles has led to echo chambers where people only encounter opinions they agree with. This shift has impacted journalism, with local news being replaced by national opinion journalism catering to specific population segments.
Impact of Digital Disruption on News Industry
The digital disruption, exemplified by platforms like Craigslist offering free classified ads, has severely affected the traditional newspaper industry. A once lucrative business faced an 80-85% revenue decline within a few years, leading to massive layoffs and content cuts. The loss of local news coverage has economic consequences, affecting municipalities' borrowing costs and overall governance.
Call for Diversification in News Consumption
The podcast emphasizes the importance of challenging one's news consumption habits. Encouraging listeners to expose themselves to diverse viewpoints rather than solely consuming content that reaffirms their beliefs. By seeking out differing perspectives and challenging comfortable narratives, individuals can combat the polarization and sensationalism rampant in media today.
From cars to entertainment, technology to retailing, most large industries have faced huge changes in the past thirty years. But none more so than the news business.
Since 2000, countless numbers of local and regional newspapers went bust. Those that did survive fired a big percentage of their reporters and slimmed down. The past two decades also saw the rise of social media and highly opinionated online journalism, slanted well to the left or right of the political spectrum. Local reporting of how our towns, cities and states are run has died out in many parts of the country.
Political journalist Chris Stirewalt is our guest in this episode. He is a contributing editor and regular columnist at the conservative news site, The Dispatch. Chris wrote the book, "Broken News: Why The Media Rage Machine Divides America and How to Fight Back."
Find more episodes of "Let's Find Common Ground" here. Learn more about The Common Ground Scorecard here.
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