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 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?