Jul

16

Young Adults Are Giving Newspapers Scant Notice

Most teenagers and adults 30 and younger are not following the news closely at all…

The end of the Cold War triggered an erosion in news following by the US public. With nearly a generation of ingrained disinterest, reacquisition of the habit seems unlikely. Add in the explosion of decentralized information sources now available on the web, and I am driven to wonder how folks from Rove to Ickes will be able to plant and propagate the memes necessary to steer public opinion for political purposes.

Throttling the outlets where govt can dictate terms (the "Fairness Doctrine"), using legislation to target enemies (as the Swimmer did with Murdoch's Boston Herald), etc., won't work in a world of Drudges.

A descent into Putinesque bloodshed, mercifully, represents an unlikely trajectory.

I think I'll make time to learn what the media was like before the Civil War, when anyone with a press and an idea had free rein to saturate street corners with their ideas.

Stefan Jovanovich writes:

In 1840 Cincinnati was the largest source of publications west of the Alleghenies, and the third largest in the country after Philadelphia and Boston. Imagine: launch parties for the latest John Updike screed down by the hog rendering yards on the Ohio.


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