Archive for the ‘Rants’ Category
Information Age Shmage
I’ve been thinking about the term “Information Age”. If we are in such an age, and if our developing infrastructure in the past decade and a half has allowed us the kind of communication technologies to receive and digest an array of information vital to our understanding of and adjustment to reality, are we in any better situation now than before?
Certainly our “access” to instantaneous information has not allowed us to avoid disaster; we were awash with intelligence that explicitly and erroneously suggested we were in grave danger with Iraq’s former leadership, and we’re no closer to comprehending the lasting implications of Katrina and similar natural catastrophes brought on by an irreversible global climate change.
With rampant overuse of ideologues and talking heads as pundits, broadcast media for the past decade and more has employed tabloid tactics to hold onto an audience which is either slipping into the internet and reemerging in different media forms such as forums and blogging or isn’t reading news at all. I believe this is blatant protestation against the dumming-down of news.
I am not finished with this, but for now: great googly-moogly. Here’s Tom with the Weather.
