Atle Hetland<\/p>\n
The current media situation, especially regarding news media, is less tidy and organised than a generation ago. The knowledge we access is not universal within a country or community. In one way, we know more and receive information and news faster, but at the same time, different groups get different information, leading to a more segregated world within and between countries and between different socio-economic and age groups. Modern technology has made things simpler and easier, yet we have not found ways to use it in ways that are practical and good for all. Thus, we will see more changes in the years to come, maybe even renewing some old ways, so that we can spend less time getting news and other information and be able to trust what we access.
\nThe development of modern mass media can be dated back to Johann Gutenberg\u2019s time in Germany around 1450 when he discovered a way of preparing texts for printing books using types of lead alloy. But before that, printing had begun in China around the year 500, and from around the year 1000, in similar ways to those that Gutenberg invented. To begin with, book printing was focused on making the Bible and other religious books and catechisms available to a larger readership, noting that before that time, copies of handwritten books were available in very limited editions, mainly for Catholic priests. Ordinary believers had to trust the church\u2019s interpretation of the texts. Even after the invention of modern printing, books remained expensive, but over the decades and centuries, booklets and pamphlets became cheaper, and it became common to print news bulletins and newspapers. This was an important democratisation process in Europe. It should be noted, too, that the church had begun to use the mother tongue of the various countries instead of Latin, which had been common before, known only by priests and a few other learned people.
\nWe are today so used to electronic media that we forget they are just about one hundred years old. First came the radio in the 1920s, and television in the 1940s in the USA, and in Europe and elsewhere from the 1950s onwards. The telephone came a bit earlier than the radio. We should also remember that electricity only became common after WWI in the USA and Europe, and in many countries, also in the West, after WWII, and in the developing countries, much later, and still not accessible in many remote areas. Obviously, electricity and light are needed for reading in the evening and for charging mobile phones and computers.
\nIt is interesting to recall that the use of the mobile phone and email and the Internet only dates back to about the 1990s and the first decade of the new century. Nowadays, social media has in many ways taken over from regular print and electronic media, certainly among young people. If somebody had told us that a couple of decades ago, and that it would be seen as old-fashioned to watch TV and listen to the radio, including news programmes, we would not have believed it. In the new media age, people began to read newspapers online instead of in print, and newspapers started to update their news 24 hours a day, competing with social media and various platforms and podcasts that appeared. In some countries, like Australia and Denmark, they have recently introduced minimum age limits of 15 or 16 years for accessing social media, but it may be difficult to enforce.
\nMany, including young people, have begun to ask if they perhaps spend too much time on their smartphones and the Internet, only to get quite scattered information without a proper, comprehensive overview of news and events, which the old print and electronic media provided. Some say that the old media decided what we should know, based on political and other grounds, and that the new media represent democratisation, and in certain ways that is true. Yet, it is also simpler for us if journalists and editors make choices for us, presumably knowing more about the breadth and depth of news and other information. Besides, we can always check and compare information from several providers.
\nThere is potential for more cooperation between social and traditional media, not only competition. Newspapers can download news from social media, verify and edit it, and present it in summarised versions, possibly with added information and comments. Thus, users would not have to scroll around and look up too many providers. It would be faster, and we would get more trusted information. It would be a way of taking advantage of the fast information on social media as well as making use of traditional electronic and print media, with editors and journalists controlling and checking the validity of the information. Also, we should remember that the media should not only inform and entertain but also educate. Editors of news media and various education sites should keep up that responsibility, so that we as consumers can trust what we get, even accepting that we can leave the selection of news and other information to them.
\nThe old media certainly have an advantage over today\u2019s social media in providing organised information. We trust the old media outlets more, and if we need comparisons, we can still look up a couple of other trusted providers, not waste time on random scrolling, unless it has almost become an addiction or compulsive disorder to play with the smartphone. Last week, I heard about an interesting development in Norway when a news outlet began downloading news and other information from social media, making it available as part of their own news. Professionals, together with users, should soon find out how best the traditional and social media can cooperate, and I believe the traditional media should take the lead.
\nFinally, I would like to draw attention to the importance of everyone, especially young people, being updated about news and other events near and far. In the local community, we should have common information about issues and discuss matters of concern. For democracy to work well in the future, we need broader participation, not only through the media but also by attending physical meetings. New technology and social media can help in this, but there is still a long way to go before we make good use of new technology, in combination with old media, meetings, and formal and informal discussions and exchanges.
\nIt is urgent that traditional media change and work more with social media; it is already high time since many have stopped listening regularly to news on electronic media and hardly ever open a newspaper or periodical. It is the media professionals, especially editors in the old media, along with political organisations, academia, and ordinary young people, who must lead the development. We all have a responsibility to use today\u2019s new technology to improve our world, the same way that printing technology did in earlier centuries, remembering that the media are helpful but not an end in themselves for gaining knowledge, analysis, and understanding. It is time for us to organise and regulate the new media, information, and education sectors better than we have done until now.<\/p>\n
The writer is a senior Norwegian social scientist with experience from university, diplomacy and development aid. He can be reached at atlehetland@yahoo.com
\nCourtesy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Atle Hetland The current media situation, especially regarding news media, is less tidy and organised than a generation ago. The knowledge we access is not universal within a country or community. In one way, we know more and receive information and news faster, but at the same time, different groups get different information, leading to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[12984],"class_list":{"0":"post-514366","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-article","7":"tag-atle-hetland"},"yoast_head":"\n