Media Transparency is the concept of determining how and why information is conveyed through various means. The public needs to have the truth, whether it is via the traditional print or online news delivery with immediate updates.
It is common knowledge that the corporations, political groups and the media use television and mass media to influence the common man and the government to achieve their own ends. This oligarchy is most definitely not a democracy in the digital age. “Journalism in general in the United States tends to be fairly conventional and traditional. Even if reporters individually see themselves as liberal, the framework in which they work isn’t necessarily a liberal structure,” says Aly Colón, head of the diversity program at the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank”[1]. Alternate Journalists with ethics and responsibility can form a coalition to portray the true story without hype, half truths or simplification. In addition, courageous independent citizen bloggers could help democracy by publishing the truth. These web loggers report news that the big 3 may ignore. For instance, a blogger from San Franciso, advocate Michael Petrelis reports stories the mainstream media chose to ignore. He took it upon himself to exercise the right to approach the FOIA regarding Judith Miller’s case. In the United States, The Freedom of Information Act is intended to increase the openness and transparency of government. Under the FOIA, the public can request records of government agencies. “In total, the three papers with daily circulations greater than one million–USA Today, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times — made just 36 requests of the Pentagon between 2000 and February 2005. USA Today made nine; the Journal, six; and the Times, 21” This data speaks volumes of the ennui that is prevalent amongst the top media outlets.
The largest television networks made slightly fewer requests than the top print outlets. CNN, the most-watched 24 hour news channel, made just 11 inquiries. Major U.S. news agencies requested list. Thanks to bloggers like Michael Petrelis, “Alternative journalism has lived up to the credo, to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable[2] (Randolph T. Holhut)”.
Weblogs are interactive, a person can go back in time and post a comment which could be picked up and replied to in turn. A breadcrumb trail or a threaded discussion is created, this thread being a continuous link or glue for the topic at hand. “Interactivity is the condition of communication in which simultaneous and continuous exchanges occur, and these exchanges carry a social, binding force (Networked Interactivity, Sheizaf Rafaeli)”.
Since weblogs are hyperlinked, we avoid the tendency to polarize a group. Successful communication results after a successful collaboration between the audience, the message, the medium, and the designers. The digital environment evolves and changes constantly. More than 100 countries are linked into exchanges of data, news and opinions. The web has become an indispensable tool for education, business and entertainment. There are billions of pages on the web, with thousands more being added every hour. E-mail, real time chatting by text, voice, video, file transfer, discussion groups, newsgroups, conferences, on line encyclopedias, real time game playing, distance learning, and the ability to log into remote computers are common.
On the other hand balkanization occurs in online communication due to segregation of like minded people bonding together on a common site. They never experience anything different other than what they chose to surround themselves with. If it were a newspaper they would perforce need to glance at a multitude of topics whilst flipping the pages.
There are very few visual similarities between the paper edition and on-line edition. The content, structure and presentation of news varies between print and online versions. The main image on the splash page changes every few hours in the online version. Rolling advertisements are constantly displayed on the screen, more color in the online version. The editor of the printed paper decides where to place the story, above or below the fold depending on its importance. The online editor has more space constraints; he has to grab the readers attention by incorporating smaller capsules in every screen. Information is dense many links are provided to various stories. A distinguishing feature on the online front page is a link to a pod cast summarizing the top headlines every weekday.
You can perform a search for multimedia files: Audio Slide Show, Interactive Feature, Slide Show, Photographer’s Journal, Editor’s Pick. Installing RSS feeds brings latest news to our doorstep.
“Ultimately, it is not so much the technology that is important but the facility, and not the medium but the delivery. We must start to see through the technology, instead of staring at it. The transition from an old world of static information to a new, fluid and dynamic communications environment necessitates considerable, and ongoing, reinvention.” (Jannuzzi 11, 12)
Works Cited:
Jannuzzi, Michelle., Smith, Richard. thoughts on cross-media design. 1st ed. Switzerland: Gabrielle Capelli Editore, 2000.
“internet.com.” Webopedia. internet.com. 15 Feb. 2006 www.webopedia.com/TERM/W/W3C.html
Williams, Josh. “Are they really separated?.” Stop Design. 10 2003. 26 Mar. 2006 <http://www.stopdesign.com/log/2003/10/14/separated.html>.
Sunstein, C. (2004). Democracy and filtering. Communications of the ACM, 47 (12), 57-59.
Matheson, D.(2004). Weblogs and the epistemology of the news:some trends in online journalism. New Media & Society, 6(4). 443-468.
http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol2/issue4/rafaeli.sudweeks.html
[1] http://foi.missouri.edu/mediacredibility/nwsrmconserv.html
[2] http://www.brasscheck.com/seldes/history.html
