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Unread 20 Jun 2006, 12:00   #1
All Systems Go
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the threat of the tabloids to democracy

the tabloids claim to be the voice of the people. this may or may not be true. In and of itself, this type of rhetoric is pretty harmless. the problem comes when one of these companies manages to get a significant proportion of the country to buy its papers.

then claims of the voice of the people become more significant. this is particulrly true when you see cases such as the paedphilia laws where the papers appear to have influeced the government. Now, this may be coincidence but it makes people think. then you see cases of this police officer who believes that the papers are controlling the government.

When senior officials make such claims, people who were unsure before are more likely to believe it. the more people belive it, the greater the myth becomes and the more influence the tabloids achieve. If this trend continues there is a real chance of government officials being influenced by the paper.

At this point the tabloids actually do control the country and are the voice of the country, as they now own it. they would then be able, in the name of big business, to destroy the rights workers have strived for for hundreds of years.
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Unread 20 Jun 2006, 12:20   #2
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Re: the threat of the tabloids to democracy

This isn't really something spectacularly new. In general though, beware of anyone who tells you they're acting in your best interests without discussing it with you.
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Unread 20 Jun 2006, 12:30   #3
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Re: the threat of the tabloids to democracy

The power of the tabloids is obviously exaggerated I would imagine the vast majority disagree with the tabloids "line" on a number of issues. They are usually most powerful on things which people already feel strongly about - things like child molesting or what not. The power stems from pointing out something in isolation which obviously does seem "wrong". If we're going to put bank robbers in prison for in excess of twenty years (we are told) then _obviously_ it is wrong that a child rapist could be released in five. And as pointed out in that Guardian article Ste posted, that is true, in a kind of simplistic obvious sense.

Their influence in other areas is debatable. The Sun may believe they "won it" in '92, but there's actually little evidence for this. Where people have a strong opinion on something, I'm not sure they'd be swayed by a newspaper. It's probably stronger where people don't have any direct personal experience - a lot of drugs coverage seems to be directed at people who don't have a clue.

Having said all that the tabloids are not particularly different from the rest of the media (or business generally) - they may be slightly more crude but it's the same sort of crap from most of them. In many cases the "tabloid agenda" is slavishly followed by the BBC or other outlets. In other cases (e.g. Big Brother pap) it originates elsewhere and the tabloids simply follow.

Newspapers do not have a particularly high readership and like to think they're more important than they are. Of course they do have influence (a particularly poisonous one in most cases) and the answer is to build alternative media sources (web sites, community papers, blogs, zines, etc). Short of that, we're probably best off murdering right wing editors. A midway could be boycotts - I understand sales of the Sun pretty much collapsed after their appalling Hillsborough coverage.
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Unread 20 Jun 2006, 12:39   #4
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Re: the threat of the tabloids to democracy

People like this guy and this guy are two examples of newspaper owners who had some power, and thought they had a lot more than they did.


PS wikipedia articles are ****ing awful sometimes
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Unread 20 Jun 2006, 12:43   #5
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Re: the threat of the tabloids to democracy

I'd argue rather than being a threat to it, the tabloids are an important part of sustaining "democracy", being as the entire idea of democracy seems to be to demotivate, depoliticize, and neuter the populous into accepting the actions of the ruling regime.
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Unread 20 Jun 2006, 13:13   #6
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Re: the threat of the tabloids to democracy

I find that people are generally the biggest threat to democracy
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Unread 20 Jun 2006, 13:24   #7
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Exclamation Re: the threat of the tabloids to democracy

Overblown and semi-hysterical rubbish. People have been moaning about the supposedly excessive power of the media since Hearst's day. If anything, the power of the tabloids has probably decreased significantly in recent years as the readership of the traditional press slumps, and people start getting their news from the net etc. I doubt that Newspapers will even exist in thirty or fifty years time.
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Unread 20 Jun 2006, 18:35   #8
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Re: the threat of the tabloids to democracy

Are you saying that the owners of the newspapers are trying to mold public opinion to their own ends? Or playing politics to sell papers?

The fact that The Daily Sport sells papers shows people aren't really looking for facts in their toilet reading.
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Unread 20 Jun 2006, 20:29   #9
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Re: the threat of the tabloids to democracy

Democracy would be great if it didn't involve pandering to idiots.
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Unread 20 Jun 2006, 20:48   #10
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Re: the threat of the tabloids to democracy

I think its more correct to say that tabloids highlight the more obvious flaws of democracy. When you allow people to vote on issues about which they have little understanding, its hardly surprising that their opinions are likely to be swayed by rabble rousers. If it werent the media playing this role, it would be something or someone else (friends opinions, blogs, group identities, popular wisdom, or any of the other million and one things people use to avoid individual thought).

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Unread 20 Jun 2006, 21:58   #11
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Re: the threat of the tabloids to democracy

Quote:
Originally Posted by Nodrog
I think its more correct to say that tabloids highlight the more obvious flaws of democracy. When you allow people to vote on issues about which they have little understanding, its hardly surprising that their opinions are likely to be swayed by rabble rousers. If it werent the media playing this role, it would be something or someone else (friends opinions, blogs, group identities, popular wisdom, or any of the other million and one things people use to avoid individual thought).
I have often thought that instead of politicians deciding EVERYTHING, have various experts decide things in their niche, and then instead of EVERYONE voting for the experts, just people in a field vote for the experts. It could be like another voting body in Congress/Parliament with a lot of power, but with new and evolved checks and balances that give traditional politicians with the power to either appoint experts, or impeach them or something in case things go to shit.
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Unread 20 Jun 2006, 22:01   #12
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Re: the threat of the tabloids to democracy

Quote:
Originally Posted by s|k
I have often thought that instead of politicians deciding EVERYTHING, have various experts decide things in their niche, and then instead of EVERYONE voting for the experts, just people in a field vote for the experts.
I'm not sure how you'd define who was "in" a particular field. And since the consequences are generally felt beyond a particular field I'm not sure this would be a particularly satisfactory solution.

Besides, I'm not really convinced that more expertise would lead to better decision making. Obviously more education is always desirable, but it's not like educated people aren't blisfully deluded (even inside their area).
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Unread 20 Jun 2006, 22:56   #13
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Re: the threat of the tabloids to democracy

Quote:
Originally Posted by s|k
I have often thought that instead of politicians deciding EVERYTHING, have various experts decide things in their niche, and then instead of EVERYONE voting for the experts, just people in a field vote for the experts. It could be like another voting body in Congress/Parliament with a lot of power, but with new and evolved checks and balances that give traditional politicians with the power to either appoint experts, or impeach them or something in case things go to shit.
Kind of like the Acadamy Awards.
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Unread 21 Jun 2006, 13:09   #14
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Re: the threat of the tabloids to democracy

Democracy is a system of compromises and is therefore flawed because the biggest idiot has the same voting power as the president of MENSA.

Democracy schould have sliding scales to adjust voting power, thus destroying the very concept of democracy.

This has nothing to do with tabloids, as tabloids have little to do with democracy.
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