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drifter51
Jan 24, 2010
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The misinformation being spread about the Arizona Immigration Law is just the latest example.
in the Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More community
Rating:
+3
It may be hard to believe but the fact of the matter is that a significant number of Americans still insist that Sadam Hussein possessed WMD despite the fact that not one shred of evidence has emerged to justify this conclusion. Likewise, large numbers of Americans firmly believe that George W. Bush stole the 2004 Presidential election in the state of Ohio when every reputable study has concluded otherwise. The American electorate is hopelessly divided on these and countless other issues. And what is most alarming about all of this is that the facts don't seem to matter anymore. In his new book "True Enough: Learning to Love In A Post-Fact Society" author Farhad Manjoo examines the dynamics of how the American media has responded to and taken advantage of the seemingly irreparable rift that has developed among the American electorate. It is a fascinating case study.
When talk radio first emerged in the late 1950's and early 1960's virtually all of the shows were local and in most cases the hosts made a conscientious effort to present all sides of an issue. In 1949, the Federal Communications Commission had issued the Fairness Doctrine which in essence prevented a station from day after day presenting a single point of view. When Ted Turner launched CNN in 1980 the idea was to present hard news to an audience thought to be hungry for such information. However, the Fairness Doctrine was discontinued in 1987 and as a result the landscape of broadcast journalism and talk radio slowly began to change.
I think that is is fair to say that conservatives have come to dominate the world of talk radio for at least the past 10-15 years while the liberal point of view is on display nearly 24 hours a day on cable networks like CNN and MSNBC. Broadcasters have quietly decided that it is much more profitable to cater to an audience with a particular point of view than trying to be objective. Hence the emergence of people like Rush Limbaugh, Chris Matthews, Keith Olberman and Lou Dobbs who has morphed from a once highly respected financial news anchor into someone resembling Howard Beale from the motion picture "Network". Add to all of this the plethora of partisan websites and highly opinionated bloggers of all stripes and what you are left with is a hopelessly divided nation.
In "True Enough" Farhad Manjoo explains that it is really the audience that has changed dramatically over the past ten or twelve years. It appears that most of us are tuning out other points of view. More and more of us are cocksure that what we believe has to be right and that everybody else is wrong. And so we turn to programming that jives with our own beliefs. Manjoo illustrates the problem with a discussion of two concepts he dubs "selective exposure" and "peripheral processing". After reading Manjoo's extensive analysis you will come away with a far better understanding of how this problem has evolved over time. Unfortunately. Manjoo believes that the situation is not likely to get much better anytime soon.
For the most part I found "True Enough: Learning To Live In A Post-Fact Society" to be a pretty interesting read. However, I thought that the book began to lose a bit of steam towards the end. Nevertheless, the ideas contained in "True Enough" are well worth your time and consideration. The polarization of the American electorate continued in the 2008 Presidential election and will likely continue to be a problem for the foreseeable future. If the events of 9/11 only served to divide us further one wonders if there is any scenario that will reverse these disturbing trends. Recommended.
When talk radio first emerged in the late 1950's and early 1960's virtually all of the shows were local and in most cases the hosts made a conscientious effort to present all sides of an issue. In 1949, the Federal Communications Commission had issued the Fairness Doctrine which in essence prevented a station from day after day presenting a single point of view. When Ted Turner launched CNN in 1980 the idea was to present hard news to an audience thought to be hungry for such information. However, the Fairness Doctrine was discontinued in 1987 and as a result the landscape of broadcast journalism and talk radio slowly began to change.
I think that is is fair to say that conservatives have come to dominate the world of talk radio for at least the past 10-15 years while the liberal point of view is on display nearly 24 hours a day on cable networks like CNN and MSNBC. Broadcasters have quietly decided that it is much more profitable to cater to an audience with a particular point of view than trying to be objective. Hence the emergence of people like Rush Limbaugh, Chris Matthews, Keith Olberman and Lou Dobbs who has morphed from a once highly respected financial news anchor into someone resembling Howard Beale from the motion picture "Network". Add to all of this the plethora of partisan websites and highly opinionated bloggers of all stripes and what you are left with is a hopelessly divided nation.
In "True Enough" Farhad Manjoo explains that it is really the audience that has changed dramatically over the past ten or twelve years. It appears that most of us are tuning out other points of view. More and more of us are cocksure that what we believe has to be right and that everybody else is wrong. And so we turn to programming that jives with our own beliefs. Manjoo illustrates the problem with a discussion of two concepts he dubs "selective exposure" and "peripheral processing". After reading Manjoo's extensive analysis you will come away with a far better understanding of how this problem has evolved over time. Unfortunately. Manjoo believes that the situation is not likely to get much better anytime soon.
For the most part I found "True Enough: Learning To Live In A Post-Fact Society" to be a pretty interesting read. However, I thought that the book began to lose a bit of steam towards the end. Nevertheless, the ideas contained in "True Enough" are well worth your time and consideration. The polarization of the American electorate continued in the 2008 Presidential election and will likely continue to be a problem for the foreseeable future. If the events of 9/11 only served to divide us further one wonders if there is any scenario that will reverse these disturbing trends. Recommended.
Thanks for reading my review. What did you think?
Facts
Why has punditry lately overtaken news? Why do lies seem to linger so long in the cultural subconscious even after they’ve been thoroughly discredited? And why, when more people than ever before are documenting the truth with laptops and digital cameras, does fact-free spin and propaganda seem to work so well? True Enough explores leading controversies of national politics, foreign affairs, science, and business, explaining how Americans have begun to organize themselves into echo chambers that harbor diametrically different facts—not merely opinions—from those of the larger culture.
--Wiley
Communities
Uniting Readers & Book Lovers across Websites
ISBN-10:
0470050101
ISBN-13:
978-0470050101
Author:
Farhad Manjoo
Genre:
Non-fiction
Publisher:
Wiley
Date Published:
March 17, 2008
Format:
Hardcover
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