Since Television is an action based media, perhaps they just can't

[WCGreen]

cover politics and the workings of our government the way we wish them to...

Television, remember, is quite passive...

You have to be shown what is happening and therefore, the issue is framed in a way you, as the viewer, can not control...

On the other side of that continuum, reading, to some degree, and surfing the net, to a greater degree, are interactive

I believe when you have words in front of you, you are involved with what it is you are reading...

You have to use your imagination as well as your deductive logic in order to follow the thrust of the story...

Maybe that is why the cable news shows are constructed the way it is, in order to give a glancing peek into what it is that those in charge of disseminating information, the so-called "news director", feels is "newsworthy" enough. That person has to, remember, fill the void with movement, progress even if it is looped, in order to keep the person passive...

If you look at the amount of eyes on the cable news networks in total, all the stations combined, there are only about four or five million people watching at any given time...

And that number hasn't really changed since the internet became such a part of our, in the collective, lives even though millions of more people have come of age...

It's like that Thomas Friedman column about Generation Q and the David Brooks column about the Odyssey years...


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/opinion/10friedman.html?em&ex=1192420800&en=d91af62bb0ff8ed6&ei=5087%0A

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/09/opinion/09brooks.html?em&ex=1192420800&en=a696726122d25d9b&ei=5087%0A


A whole new generation of eyeballs is coming on line (notice the shameless toss to the internet generation) and is not tuning into the Cable News shows or getting involved the way we, meaning my demographic, did and still, to some extent, do...

This generation is more attuned to all that the internet has to offer...

Generation Q's, god Freidman loves to coin cutesy monikers doesn't he, takes in information in a more holistic way...

And that is why I take heart...

And remember this, since we DU'ers represent a sizable chunk of the eyeballs staring at Tweety or Wolf or the Coop, we take that passive information and make it interactive by posting all the "can you believe what they just said on...." threads. We dissect and then take our views out into the wide world and engage in interactive action with the people we meet...

And remember, there are millions of people out there reading news magazines, cultural periodicals and taking in books as well as looking for conformation or repudiation on the net...

It's almost as if there is a fierce battle being waged between those on the far right, for the most part, a passive audience, and those of us who still believe and trust in the American ideal and get our information in a more active maner...

Their side is locked into the cable world while we are expanding all the cyber possibilites...

Okay, I get disheartened, just like the rest of DU, when something big gets slanted the other way by CNN or MSNBC...

But hell hath no fury like a Du'er scorned...

And that is good because if we didn't give them important feedback, they surely would slip completely to the dark side and mimic Fox word for word...

So what can we take from all of this...

Well, this isn't our father's media, they can have the cable news, but I have to admit I still watch to catch the action oriented news that is hitting the cable...

But I, like I suspect a whole bunch of people, get their true news by reading in depth stuff on the net...

And that, my fellow DU'ers, gives me at bit more comfort...

That's my two cents..

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. What a thoughtful and excellent post this is...

You have given us much to think about here...

I believe you are correct...the internet will continue to have greater and greater influence on what people see, and how they see it...

Reading is involving...

I thank you for your very intelligent two cents!

K&R