Comments Question 4
From CyberOne Wiki
4. If we routinely start receiving "unslanted" information, in a way that we have not in the past, will we have difficulty in accurately weighing its value and finding its proper place in context? Is this a role that traditional news sources have played to such an extent that we are not aware to what degree we rely on "digested" information? Is it fair to assume that citizen media pieces will be less biased than items coming from traditional mass media and be more faithful to the eventual development of all sides of an issue?
Several things about the statement that citizen media will be less biased than mass media:
- it's such a broad generalization that it would be impossible to prove or disprove
- I doubt many people would actually make that assertion, so it's sort of a "straw man"
In the final analysis it doesn't matter whether citizen media is more or less biased than the mass media. It's potential significance is that by vastly increasing the options on our info buffet table, we are allowed - or forced - to make our own synthesis. The beneficial result would be having actual thought injected into our political process. Then, instead of our beliefs being weak reflections of what's been said in the mass media, or reflexive interpretations based on our own prejudices, they would (the hope is) become products of enagaged reflection on and discourse about, multiple streams of information.
- Peter Hess
I doubt that a single piece of citizen media will be unslanted or unbiased, except in the sense that it might more authentically represent the argument of its creator without the filter added by a gatekeeper, e.g. a conventional media outlet. A concern is that a conventional gatekeeper is hostage to profit-making criteria when it decides how to select and edit those views that hit the mass airwaves.
--Tawfiq 23:48, 12 November 2006 (EST)
