Internet Political News
In the world of the Internet, print media is obviously losing steam with every passing day, as fewer and fewer people go to it for their news. Even television media are finding themselves being affected by the Internet, if only because it’s often easier to watch “television” on the Web than it is to watch it on the actual TV. The effects that this transition of focus onto the Internet will have on political news, among other types of news, are interesting to note, if dangerous in practice.
The primary problem that one can see arising with a transition to reliance on political news on the Internet, as opposed to on the television, lies in the very nature of the Internet. The Internet user seeks out news, as opposed to simply being able to flip on the television and hear about it. Whereas on the television, a viewer may find him or herself encountering political issues that he or she may not have normally been interested in, on the Internet, it is all too easy for a user to narrow his or her vision down into a myopic view of political issues, focusing only on those things which the user thinks are most important to him or her. Furthermore, it is all too easy for a user to only find those opinions and facts which will support his or her own thoughts, thanks to the nature of the Internet. It is easy to avoid any possible competing opinions, and therefore it is all too easy to become a terribly unbalanced person, without any sense of reasonable arguments that might be made against his or her own opinions. The Internet news media could then easily lead to political news being spread only to those for whom it confirms their own beliefs, which would lead to a general decrease in the complexity of America’s opinions and understanding.
A secondary problem to news being on the Internet primarily lies in the form of argument. As previously mentioned, it will be all too easy for Internet users to find news only on the subjects which matter to them, and ignore everything else. Similarly, it will be all too easy to find a website on which one or two proponents of a position must fend off hundreds of thousands of angered Internet users who attempt to shout the proponents down via angry language and irrational rhetoric. Political issues will no longer be debated with intelligence and sagacity; they will be treated irrationally, without debaters having the proper, calm, rational mindset for useful debate.
The Internet does have the potential to provide forums for discussants to meet and debate political issues in some friendly environments; indeed, that would be the ideal use of the Web for political issues. But unfortunately, it is entirely likely that such pleasant, rational forums will be the exception, and not the rule. Much more likely is that polarized writers on the web, who do not have a strong understanding of the political issues being discussed and simply use incisive language in order to get readers to agree, will become the norm for discussing political news. As these writers can put their thoughts up on the Internet for free, without needing to go through a filtering process like a corporate news site might have, the Internet will become filled with unfiltered, unconsidered opinions on political issues, designed merely to provoke, and not to increase discourse. One can only hope that this will not be the case for the future, but at the moment, this picture seems to be the one we are painting.
