IFC Media Project Town Hall, Bostonist Readers Speak Out!

The panelists were:
Candy Altman, VP of News, Hearst-Argyle Television
Martin Baron, Editor, Boston Globe
Tucker Carlson, Chief Political Correspondent, MSNBC
Josh Silver, Co-Founder, Free Press
Juan Williams, News Analyst, NPR
(To the dismay of the high school girls in the audience and one Bostonist editor, Gideon Yago did not actually make an appearance.)

The focus of the discussion was coverage of crime in the media, particularly TV news. We heard about the “missing white girl” phenomenon, the appeal of which has always been a mystery to us. But for our money, the most interesting exchange came following Silver’s contention that centralization of media ownership is (more or less) the downfall of civilization.

“Government has failed…they have allowed the consolidation to make it such that profit is paramount. Everyone in the business understands that is the most important thing, not necessarily providing the critical investigative journalism that people need, that democracy needs…” he lamented. Consolidation is a common refrain in media criticism; while there are certainly fewer hands on the levers of the big-name journalism and entertainment institutions, what sort of effect has that really had?

Baron weighed in first after Silver further said that his business was “falling.” No argument here. But he raises the interesting point that if consolidation was all about profit, and clearly the companies involved aren’t, well…profiting, something else has to be afoot. You’re reading it. (Seriously!) “With the Internet…the cost of entry into the news and information business is zero. This is why many of our companies are facing serious challenges these days, because things are atomizing, rather than consolidating.”

Carlson followed along the same line, adding that he felt a lack of creativity among the so-called mass media is also to blame. “The problem is that we’re unimaginative a lot of the time. We don’t write enough and produce enough great stories. They’re ignoring the more traditional news coverage because we’re not offering up stuff that’s very compelling.”

We are in the midst of a titanic media shakeup because the companies and personalities of the last generation are unsure of their place today. People are increasingly looking to the Internet for news, and why shouldn’t they? Not only does an outlet with essentially unlimited space provide for more in-depth coverage of any particular issue, but the tools to conduct your own background research are also right there! The focus on “missing white girl” stories (to grab the attention of older generations) and celebrity news (to siphon off at least some of us youngsters) is a natural consequence of companies not knowing where they fit into this new spectrum...or even understanding it.

That being said, the bewildering array of media outlets requires more responsibility from consumers to discern the veracity of what they see. For that, we commend the effort of the IFC Media Project in reaching out to high school students to go over the basics of media literacy. One complaint: we found it incredibly ironic that an event devoted to criticizing TV news for being rushed and shallow also appeared to be under severe time constraints which limited the panelists’ ability to branch out into other issues. (Combined with the graphics-heavy backdrop, it was sometimes hard to believe that this was not done as a sort of metacriticism.)

Anyway, if you’re still with us, it’s your turn. We, the cells of this organism called Bostonist, have had some internal discussion about “what the readers think,” so here’s your chance to let us know as we head into 2009. What can we do to make this place even better for you? We can’t promise we’ll take everyone’s suggestions (though we may laugh at them), but this is the time to make your voice heard, so go to town!