Congressional Gridlock, Town Hall Vitriol...and the Information Environment
Abstract
Speed, access to news, connectivity.... The information age, as Thomas Friedman likes to remind us, has made the world flat. From many perspectives, that's good news. You can access news from anywhere, at any time with a click of a mouse. You have the capability to watch literally hundreds of television channels, in multiple languages from the comfort of your couch. You can listen to rock, jazz, metal or classical music without interruption driving from coast to coast...or you can listen to talk radio a mind-numbing 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. And the future will only bring more capability, more options, and more information. With more access to information, you can easily become more informed. It follows that you can then better engage in national dialog. Your decisions will be borne of the multi-dimensional research that the plethora of information at your fingertips enables.... But, why is it then, that apparently a rather significant number of Americans believe that Barack Obama is not a U.S. citizen? Why is it that Lindsay and Paris get so much ink (or is it electrons) that we know them by their first names, and a Presidential candidate used them in election ads? Information access is a two-edged sword. Newspapers, which once competed for knowledge as a scarce resource, today compete for a new scarce resource: the readers' (or listeners' in the case of broadcast media) attention. Perhaps that is why increasing numbers of young adults turn to the Comedy Channel's "The Daily Show" for their news. Jon Stewart, the show's host, scoffs at this, but his ratings are such that politicians, celebrities and even military leaders clamor to be his guests. Of course in an environment where the speed of breaking news means viewership, and thus advertising dollars, accuracy is sometimes sacrificed as well.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 10, 2009
- Accession Number
- ADA509110
Entities
People
- Dennis M. Murphy
Organizations
- United States Army War College