The Next Five
Posted on December 30, 2006
Filed Under Error and bias |
Continuing yesterday’s ruminations on how the news’ agenda should change:
6. The obesity clamour dies down as does the fake drama over cholesterol, two manufactured disease scares that the news media have unwittiingly fuelled. Obesity is not a disease and cholesterol matters a lot less than we’re led to believe. How do we make medical issues more rational?
7. The sell out of science has aided the growth of creationism and a savvy news organisation would react appropriately. Learned journals have allowed the peer review system to be abused by coroprate interests and by scientists who don’t declare their financial interests. As soon as we allow sloppy science we seed movements like creationism that want to root their religious claims in peer review “proofs”. It’s dangerous and the only answer is more vigilance by the press.
8. Al Gore scores with his positive politics. The genius of Gore is facilitating communications between people rather than being the mouthpiece for interests and in 2007 the clamour for his Presidential nomination should overtake his reluctance. It’s an object lesson in how to participate as a politician in the new media world.
9. Peak blogging - like oil blogging and user generated content runs out or momentum. Digg begins to die off and we all sit around and question - wow, what did that all mean? What difference have seventy million new voices made? It should be an urgent question.
10. Clint Eastwood has opened up the Second World War and post-war to intelligent rational revision. A rational news media would exploit it and raise fundamental questions about how we run western democracies through moral illusions.
Starting tomrorow. This blog is headed in a new direction.
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