Declining Role of Mainstream Media Leads to
Less Well-informed Electorate
Commentary by Barrie Dunsmore,
October 6, 2011, page 2.....

When I took early retirement, I vowed I would not fall victim to old-fart-itis – the affliction that hits many old men and induces them to claim that everything that has happened in their field since they retired, is a disaster. I confess in recent years being true to that vow has been a real challenge. Actually, when I did a series of lectures to the journalism classes at Vermont’s St. Michael’s College last year, I suggested that students look at me as an archeologist might view a relic from the past that is more or less intact and might provide some useful information.
 
During my four decades as an active reporter, there were major technological changes in network television news – going from black and white film to color; shifting from film to videotape; the advent of high quality hand-held cameras. And finally, of course, the coming of the communications satellite. That significantly changed everything. 

It meant there would be no more waiting for three days for the film from Vietnam or the Middle East to arrive in New York. But much more important, it became possible to have live coverage of news events virtually anywhere in the world. 

Yet as great as those changes were, they pale in comparison to how the new information technologies have totally revolutionized the media. The Internet, combined with the almost universal use of the personal computer and the cellphone, has had an extraordinarily profound impact on the reporting of news, not to mention re-defining what constitutes news and who or what is a reporter. Many consider this a good thing, a notion I do not entirely share. 

I will say this about the new technologies – they are not inherently good or bad. Like all of their revolutionary predecessors, such as the telegraph or moveable type, they are neutral instruments. Whether they serve society – or subvert it – depends on how these new tools are being used, by whom and to what ends. 

For me, one of the most troubling consequences of this latest revolution is that by siphoning off huge portions of ad revenues, the Internet and its social networks have threatened the financial viability of the mainstream media, and, as a consequence, have undermined the credibility of the news media as one of the key institutions that make democracy work. 

Thomas Jefferson repeatedly said it, and the philosophers of ancient Greece apparently believed it: In order to survive, democracy needs to have a relatively well-informed electorate. The people cannot wisely choose their leaders if they don’t have at least a basic understanding of the issues and of the consequences of the choices they are making. 
What worries me most about the declining role of the mainstream media in today’s world is that, in spite of all the various new platforms to provide and dispense information – ironically, maybe because of all these choices, there is evidence that the electorate is less well-informed than it was in other times in history. As I see it, these days more people than ever hold passionate, partisan opinions that are largely free of facts. At another time, those necessary facts would have been available in the major news media, and most people would have accepted them as such. Sad to say, that is something that large and growing numbers of people no longer do.

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This commentary is an excerpt from remarks made by Barrie Dunsmore during the September 28 party at ECHO for the release of his new book, There and Back, published by Wind Ridge Publishing, Inc. of Shelburne. Dunsmore traveled the world for more than 30 years as a foreign correspondent for ABC News. Barrie explained the title of the book as follows: “The first section called ‘There’ contains columns and commentaries that deal largely with events taking place in foreign lands over ‘there’ in this century – but seen through the prism of events I covered in the last century. For example, I wrote about the Arab Spring in Egypt last February in the context of my long experience in Egypt and particularly my contacts with the late president Anwar Sadat.

The section called ‘Back’ contains articles addressing the politics, culture and media of America since I’ve been in retirement, ‘back’ here in the United States. The items in this section reflect a somewhat detached view of America as a former foreign and diplomatic correspondent might see it.”

Dunsmore is a member of the Board of Directors of The Charlotte News.