Democracy and the News Chapter 2: Thoughts and Recap

          After reading the second chapter of Democracy and the News by Herbert J. Gans for class on Wednesday, it was clear that Gans presented several valid points and critical analyses about the inner workings of mass media, its journalists, and the struggles of the transition into a new age, the Information Age. In the chapter, Gans talked about how journalists for large news corporations are no longer able to report on the stories that they feel are important in an unbiased manner. In order to financially stay afloat, they must report only on the stories that they are told and must do it in the manner that the company sees fit. This affects viewers drastically, and the blatant biases can be observed today within large companies such as FOX News and CNN in the Israel-Palestine conflict. In the case of FOX, there is a clear bias in favor of Israel, while in the case of CNN, there is an unmistakable bias in favor of Palestine. This is primarily due to these companies operating on a for- profit model, which dictates that the news that is reported must be catered to the people in order to increase the number of viewers. As a result, only the most "important" news is reported on, or only certain types of news are covered, while leaving many other areas out. This results in a less educated citizen that is not as fit to politically contribute to society.
          In terms of the news companies themselves, aside from their journalists, the coming of the New Age has lead to an overall, as Gans put it, "disempowerment" of these news corporations. As the New Age has come in, the prominence of the Internet has risen, television audiences have shrunk, and people don't care as much about the news as they used to. Even as the readers of printed news shrinks due to news that is broadcasted over the TV, the audience of news on the television has also declined in number. This shrinkage in overall audience is due to the ease at which people are able to access news over the internet, and moreover, on their phones in general. With this ease at which citizens are able to get news, there is no reason for them to read it in print or wait to watch it on TV, leaving news corporations with a gaping hole in their income and a need to make the transition with the world to the internet. In terms of actually caring about news, citizens in this modern age are much more obsessed with social media such as Twitter and Facebook. This draws most, if not all of their attention and care away from the news, and makes it even harder for news companies to get people to read their news, even if they establish sites on the web. Due to this, news corporations are still adapting to the new age of the internet and how to refill the hole in profits that is still growing, as citizens from the previous age start to grow old and die, and the number of denizens of this Information Age, continues to rise.