As a citizen journalist, this observation is not only intriguing but a must share. Do read through this before watching tonight’s news and scale this against Kenyan media and the content that makes the headlines on a daily. (Article by Silicon Valley Watcher: The Continuing Rise of Activist Media And The Demise Of The Fourth Estate.)
“This struggle between establishment media and corporate interests has been going on for a long time. The media used to be referred to as the Fourth Estate, one of the four pillars of society.
What’s changed is that the Fourth Estate is shrinking rapidly because it’s business model is under attack. This means that its ability to act as a check and balance against the agendas of rich and powerful special interests is also under attack.
It means that important issues will increasingly be presented through media that is polluted by bias, and designed to serve the interests of corporate agendas rather than a common good.
While it is true that activist media of the Occupy Wall Street kind also gets a boost from a weaker establishment media, corporate media has money and that means access to mass media distribution channels — these are far more effective than relying on social networks.
So how will our society make important decisions about critical issues?
Media is how communities “think” about problems and issues, media is used to inform complex decisions. If we have high quality media we will make better decisions.
Yet we face a future where corporations are rapidly becoming media companies and are rushing to produce massively biased content that seeks to influence millions of people.”
This is why the decline of establishment media is very bad news.
Free speech without the means to be heard is worthless — it cannot influence the democratic process. Welcome to our future.”
Read the rest of the article here. You might also like this article.
