At 11:33 PM +0530 5/17/10, Pranesh Prakash wrote: >-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- >Hash: SHA1 > >On Monday 17 May 2010 10:42 PM, Thaths wrote: >> Surely being unplugged does not preclude being informed of and >> participating in _local_ politics and civil society? > >Engagement with even local politics would require being plugged in, >would it not? Surely all the information that you require cannot be >first-hand, and would you not also wish to increase the reach of your >voice? The mass media, I would think, are crucial for such engagement >(as also are the not-so-mass media).
If you live in a small-enough town, the mass media are not reliable for local news. Instead, you pick up your news at the grocery store, the video store, the post office, the hardware store. You read the bulletin board at the library. You attend local meetings of the water board, the school board, the rec board, the business association, the volunteer fire department. You take part in local civic and recreational organizations and you gossip. Over time, you identify the hub people who always know what's going on. You drop by to see them when you want to know what's up. If they can't tell you, they can tell you who to talk to. I don't think that newspapers or broadcast media can take the place of this one-on-one engagement in local affairs. More, I think they distance people from direct engagement with town life. >Most definitely getting away from the din of the media can be soothing >or even exhilarating, depending on your frame of mind at that time. >However, it is not something that anyone who doesn't believe in a >rejection of politics and other worldly affairs can ever hope to find >sustainable. Do those who've experimented think otherwise? Do you find that the media does a good job of keeping you informed? In the US, I am afraid that the media is good for keeping the circuses going and fairly bad at helping a person make informed decisions. Individual news organizations no longer do much direct reporting. The news is mostly provided by wire services that deliver the same homogenized product to every news outlet. The news has been carefully spun to direct your attention and keep you bringing your advertiser-valuable eyes back for more. Mass media news works best for me in small doses. -- Heather Madrone (heat...@madrone.com) http://www.madrone.com http://www.sunsplinter.blogspot.com I'd love to change the world, but they won't give me access to the source code.
