I think it’s good to be really cynical about the media as it exists today. I’m not sure it’s good to be cynical about the-media-two-years-from-now — that has something of the property of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I have my own personal sense of how likely it is that the media will suddenly turn over a new leaf tomorrow, but since it might turn out to be easier than I think, I won’t start the conversation by stating that. Instead, I’ll mention some of the specific forces I think create the status quo:
Self-deception and plausible deniability. Reporters don’t want to think of themselves as doing a bad thing. If there were common knowledge within many newsrooms that this level of meta is bad, all or most of those newsrooms would behave a lot better. (Not perfectly, but a lot better.) Even more so if their readers and colleagues felt the same.
Lack of an ideology that recognizes these things as bad and clearly tells reporters what to do instead.
Bad ideologies filling the vacuum: ideologies that say “do the normal pragmatic thing”, and ones that say “do the virtuous principled thing, but that principle is about advancing a specific political agenda that doesn’t care much about epistemic principle”.
Economic incentives. But these are partly shaped by the above incentives: many people choose to work in journalism because they want to purchase a sense that they’re doing something noble and good. Many people choose to consume the news in order to purchase a sense that they’re doing something responsible and virtuous.
I understand, I think we have an honest disagreement here. I’m not saying that the media is cringe in an attempt to make it so, as a meta move. I honestly think that the current prestige media establishment is beyond reform, a pure appendage of power. It’s impact can grow weaker or stronger, but it will not acquire honesty as a goal (and in fact, seems to be giving up even on credibility).
In any case, this disagreement is beyond the scope of your essay. What I learn from it is to be more careful of calling things cringe or whatever in my own speech, and to see this sort of thing as an attack on the social reality plane rather than an honest report of objective reality.
Sounds right! If there’s anything I should read in order to understand and agree with your view, send it my way (including things that get written in the future).
Came to the comments to find an exchange like this. Rob, I liked the article, and also my thought while reading it was that I didn’t think you were being cynical enough about motivations. There may be a conflict v. mistake theory thing here: in your article, the phenomenon is treated as a mistake or bad habit by people unaware of its consequences, rather than as an intentional strategy. My guess is that it is an intentional strategy (in fact, it’d be crazy if it weren’t), and it’s important to see it as that in order to figure out what function it’s serving (and for whom).
Or both: for journalists, the focus on meta is an intentional strategy, but for the rest of us (people who read journalism), it’s mostly a bad habit (maybe, or something).
Another, broader thing here, which is that there are really two different conversations your post sparks for me. One is, what is the existing media/news doing, really, and how, and why? And the other is, what does actually good and effective media/news look like?
I think it’s good to be really cynical about the media as it exists today. I’m not sure it’s good to be cynical about the-media-two-years-from-now — that has something of the property of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I have my own personal sense of how likely it is that the media will suddenly turn over a new leaf tomorrow, but since it might turn out to be easier than I think, I won’t start the conversation by stating that. Instead, I’ll mention some of the specific forces I think create the status quo:
Self-deception and plausible deniability. Reporters don’t want to think of themselves as doing a bad thing. If there were common knowledge within many newsrooms that this level of meta is bad, all or most of those newsrooms would behave a lot better. (Not perfectly, but a lot better.) Even more so if their readers and colleagues felt the same.
Lack of an ideology that recognizes these things as bad and clearly tells reporters what to do instead.
Bad ideologies filling the vacuum: ideologies that say “do the normal pragmatic thing”, and ones that say “do the virtuous principled thing, but that principle is about advancing a specific political agenda that doesn’t care much about epistemic principle”.
Economic incentives. But these are partly shaped by the above incentives: many people choose to work in journalism because they want to purchase a sense that they’re doing something noble and good. Many people choose to consume the news in order to purchase a sense that they’re doing something responsible and virtuous.
I understand, I think we have an honest disagreement here. I’m not saying that the media is cringe in an attempt to make it so, as a meta move. I honestly think that the current prestige media establishment is beyond reform, a pure appendage of power. It’s impact can grow weaker or stronger, but it will not acquire honesty as a goal (and in fact, seems to be giving up even on credibility).
In any case, this disagreement is beyond the scope of your essay. What I learn from it is to be more careful of calling things cringe or whatever in my own speech, and to see this sort of thing as an attack on the social reality plane rather than an honest report of objective reality.
Sounds right! If there’s anything I should read in order to understand and agree with your view, send it my way (including things that get written in the future).
Came to the comments to find an exchange like this. Rob, I liked the article, and also my thought while reading it was that I didn’t think you were being cynical enough about motivations. There may be a conflict v. mistake theory thing here: in your article, the phenomenon is treated as a mistake or bad habit by people unaware of its consequences, rather than as an intentional strategy. My guess is that it is an intentional strategy (in fact, it’d be crazy if it weren’t), and it’s important to see it as that in order to figure out what function it’s serving (and for whom).
Or both: for journalists, the focus on meta is an intentional strategy, but for the rest of us (people who read journalism), it’s mostly a bad habit (maybe, or something).
Another, broader thing here, which is that there are really two different conversations your post sparks for me. One is, what is the existing media/news doing, really, and how, and why? And the other is, what does actually good and effective media/news look like?