I’ve recently subscribed to an on-line news service.
It pushes news items into my email, generally at regular
intervals, and if something newsworthy happens it reports that as “breaking
news”.
It ‘s a useful service, but one aspect of it bothers me.
There is a facility for the reader to indicate a preference, which extends to
completely eliminating specific topics.
That’s OK, I hear you say. Why should I have to hear
about boring stuff, about which I have no concern.
It’s OK if news is seen as a product. It isn’t. News is
information.
Corporate media sees news as content which they can sell
to consumers.
Most of the dysfunction that has visited the mainstream
media recently has grown out of this packaging.
