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NEWSPAPERS HURT BY HIGH ILLITERACY
Sherwood Ross, Intelligence Daily - One reason for the decline of newspaper circulation is that 42 million Americans are illiterate and roughly 50 million more are semi-literate, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Christopher Hedges says. What's more, he adds, 80 percent of U.S. households last year did not buy a book. . .
From a high of 60,000 newsroom reporters, the number of professional journalists has dwindled to about 50,000, and several hundred newspapers have closed their doors, said Benjamin Compaine, of the Innovation International Media Consulting Group and author of the book "Who Owns The Media?"
Newspapers lost 42 percent of their value during the 2006-07 period, added Rick Edmonds, media analyst for the Poynter Institute of St. Petersburg, Fla., "and then 83 per cent of their remaining value in 2008. . . We have only one publicly traded newspaper company at higher than $5 a share (The Washington Post) right now, which is mainly valued for its Kaplan Education subsidiary.". . .
Hedges said, "What we're seeing is not just the death of newsprint or the death of print, but the rise in corporate hands of essentially the obliteration and destruction of our open society. Virtually everything that we see, read, and hear is now controlled by roughly eight corporations," he said, among them Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., Viacom, General Electric, and Disney. Disney, for example, owns ABC Television Network and ESPN besides Disney Channel and Radio Disney.
"They look at their readers as clients. These readers---like all clients which are being sold products by corporations---have to be made happy. They have to be catered to, and the idea that news will be delivered which makes people unsettled or uncomfortable is an anathema to people whose goals are profit," Hedges said.
Peter Phillips, director of Project Censored, which trains students about defending free press rights, said only five percent of young persons under 30 read a newspaper because "they don't see anything relevant to their lives."
Phillips went on to say that at the Media Reform Conference held in Minneapolis in June, 2008, a survey of 376 persons selected at random were asked their views about media today. "Ninety-nine percent agreed with the statement that corporate media has failed to keep the American people informed on important issues facing the nation. We get almost unanimous agreement on that point."
From a high of 60,000 newsroom reporters, the number of professional journalists has dwindled to about 50,000, and several hundred newspapers have closed their doors, said Benjamin Compaine, of the Innovation International Media Consulting Group and author of the book "Who Owns The Media?"
Newspapers lost 42 percent of their value during the 2006-07 period, added Rick Edmonds, media analyst for the Poynter Institute of St. Petersburg, Fla., "and then 83 per cent of their remaining value in 2008. . . We have only one publicly traded newspaper company at higher than $5 a share (The Washington Post) right now, which is mainly valued for its Kaplan Education subsidiary.". . .
Hedges said, "What we're seeing is not just the death of newsprint or the death of print, but the rise in corporate hands of essentially the obliteration and destruction of our open society. Virtually everything that we see, read, and hear is now controlled by roughly eight corporations," he said, among them Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., Viacom, General Electric, and Disney. Disney, for example, owns ABC Television Network and ESPN besides Disney Channel and Radio Disney.
"They look at their readers as clients. These readers---like all clients which are being sold products by corporations---have to be made happy. They have to be catered to, and the idea that news will be delivered which makes people unsettled or uncomfortable is an anathema to people whose goals are profit," Hedges said.
Peter Phillips, director of Project Censored, which trains students about defending free press rights, said only five percent of young persons under 30 read a newspaper because "they don't see anything relevant to their lives."
Phillips went on to say that at the Media Reform Conference held in Minneapolis in June, 2008, a survey of 376 persons selected at random were asked their views about media today. "Ninety-nine percent agreed with the statement that corporate media has failed to keep the American people informed on important issues facing the nation. We get almost unanimous agreement on that point."
3 Comments:
The duming down process has been gong on for a long tyme. Lots of peple can bearly writ a desent sentence in Englich, let alone speek it.
Anon,
Tooshay!
I am not so sure that the literacy rate is going down. In 1969 to 1970 there was an illiteracy rate of more than 25% amongst males aged 18-26 in the Armed Forces Entrance and Examination Station covering Northern SC and Southern NC. These were individuals who could not read at all, not merely grossly incompetent readers. Many could only make a mark for their signature. In some Counties the rates exceeded 50%.
These rates have changed significantly over the past 40 years. While it is possible that this area may not be typical of the US, I would find it a stretch to say that it is either unique or against the national trend.
Newspapers now tend to be owned by larger corporations as investments. They serve interests other than that of the news, and are all too often aligned with governmental influence.
I don't trust newspapers to tell me what is going on. It is more reliable to read news on the net. If I have a question about a story, I can read about other views from other media or other nations with a quick search. This advantage makes dead tree media obsolete.
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