A Common Thread revisited

In a recent post, fellow blogger, Lauren asks  if the American media is intentionally dumbing down the country, with the OWS as backdrop:

“I hate to think that social responsibility amongst the media giants is so dismal that we are witnessing the intentional dumbing of citizenry, but I think it may be true.  I agree with almost everything McChesney says, and I think if most American were able to read it and understand it, they would (at least somewhat) agree too.”

I was originally going to respond as a comment, but there’s lots of threads one can head into from there.   First we have to remember that this is the private sector we’re talking about.  Second, when we talk about Americans, or a population, “dumbing down” what do we mean by that?

On the first questions, the media is a private sector affair.  Media is generally deregulated and privatized in the USA, and to a lesser extent in the rest of the world. I’m not saying that that is or isn’t desirable (at least in this post), but it is what it is.  Given that, it would be problematic to have a media that is explicitly looking for ways to “educate” people.  The only way for that to happen is to mandate certain types of programming at certain hours or enforce a certain rigidity of editorial standards.  However, that is a sort of heavy regulation of content and government involvement is a non-starter in the United States.  Where would consensus come from on what an educational or a fair message is from the media? Can you legislate against bias? It’s difficult.    Also, that would start a slippery slope towards government control.

As an exaggerated example, imagine the government saying, “from 6-8 pm, there must be no entertainment programming, and only FACTUAL world news can be reported”.  Or as a less imagined example, Senator Kerry recently said the media has a responsibility to “not give equal time to the Tea Party.”   Imagine if such a sentiment became an enforceable law?  I know I’m exaggerating but it does show the dilemma that exists right now.  Remember the fairness doctrine?  That was the sort of framework though which one could regulate for content, but it couldn’t survive.

The other issue is even if the news was “better, fairer and more objective and diverse”, will people watch? Is that what most people in North America want to do at 8:00 pm after work?  It was mentioned in class last week that in other countries news is on at primetime unlike in the USA but I suspect there are cultural reasons for that such as a higher tolerance of public sector involvement in their daily lives, or the historical isolation of Americans from ‘others’.  While I think it is clear that the media does engage in agenda-setting, and that there is some band of what ends up being accepted as ‘mainstream’ by the elites, the different types of news programming are there.  There are all sorts of news channels on TV.  An interesting question here is–what is the role of the media? Informing, entertaining, educating, filtering….? It would be interesting to hear from different backgrounds on this.

The last issue I want to touch on is whether America is indeed “dumbed down”.   What is meant when we use that term? Is it an issue of education? Do we mean uninformed? Ignorant?  And if so is it being uninformed and ignorant in general, or just being uninformed of current news events?  That is a sentiment I’ve heard expressed often by many people especially young college kids like us studying for advanced degrees, but I’m curious as to what others mean when they say that.  What do you mean when you say “dumbing down”?