Mainstream Media Is Self-Perpetuating and Parasitic, not Blogs

Two-thirds of Americans can't name a single Supreme Court justice, according to a nationwide survey by FindLaw. Most would explain this with the hackneyed stereotype that "Americans are stupid."

Well......maybe they've got a point. But, I would say Americans are simply uninformed. Clearly, the mainstream media is not doing their job of keeping viewers engaged and informed. In my opinion, the mainstream media is a "self-perpetuating, parasitic news organism," not blogs.  A 2012 study by Farleigh Dickinson University showed that Fox News viewers were far less informed than those who watched NO NEWS at ALL. Interestingly, even the Daily Show's viewers were more informed than Fox's.

The Daily Show functions like a blog, by making serious topics interesting and keeping viewers engaged with funny commentary from the hosts, as well as keeping them informed about the issues at hand. Similarly, blogs allow regular citizens, who might not be informed about every single issue, to read about what they really care about.

Over the past years, apathy has infected our country, with many seeing no point to voting. Americans are not motivated to learn about what's happening in the world. As Libresco outlined at the Yale Political Union, "Democracy depends on lowering the barriers to becoming informed."

With blogs, you can focus exactly on what you care about. Rather than sitting on the couch, staring at your television, blogs allow you interact with others by commenting, contacting the writer, or making your own blog.

Although some skeptics might criticize blogs since they allow for uninformed people to write lies on the internet, I think that the mere engagement of citizens is commendable.

In addition, we cannot be sure about the accuracy of the mainstream media. Cable news are at the whim of their advertisers, as more than three-fourths of their revenue comes from advertisements. If a news network was heavily funded by BP, they would be hesitant to report how they completely destroyed the Gulf of Mexico due their lack of oversight.

Even though bloggers have their biased views on issues, their views are much more organic and not controlled by big corporations or the government. Therefore, I disagree with Andrew Ferguson that blogs are "self-perpetuating, parasitic news organisms" because it's the mainstream media that leaves citizens apathetic and uniformed.


Multimedia Sources
Dunne, Johnny. "Stupid Americans.." YouTube. YouTube, 16 Dec. 2007. Web. 13 Sept. 2013.
"Upload Images." Todays Episode: 'Buster Visits a Chatroom' Imgur, 2011. Web. 13 Sept. 2013.