I keep hearing the American people are poorly educated about politics especially when compared to generations past. This has bothered me, but I couldn't put my finger on the deeper reason behind this trend until I was reading the article "That's Infotainment!" by Matt Nisbet. He really summed it up when he shared that, "[this new generation has the ability to] virtually ignore the news altogether, choosing alternative programming."
In past generations they did not have tball, karate, dance, volleyball, basketball and every other assortment of things weighing on a persons schedule. Once someone left work they were relatively free to socialize or stay home and watch TV. The big difference? If they watched TV, they were virtually forced to watch the news. Every tv station had a news program. With newspapers, people had enough time to stop and read the newspaper from cover to cover. As compared to now, people have a choice and they choose to watch Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Jersey Shore or whatever entertaining show they are captivated with. This has driven the mass media to try and add entertainment value to the news, thus diluting it and making it less trustworthy, in turn making people less educated about important issues even when they think they are extremely educated.
It is the power of choice and the downfall of good/honest journalism. I wish I lived in the time of Walter Cronkite. Wow. What a journalistic legend and you knew if he was telling you something that it was to be taken seriously. I don't know that there is a single journalist alive today that I can take as seriously as the world took Cronkite. What a shame. What a shame that people choose not to watch the news, and what a shame the news is just about selling advertising and getting viewers and doing whatever it takes to do that. I could rant more, but I suppose I'll stop here. you get the point.
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