Recently,
one of the last major publishers of magazines took to putting a known terrorist
on the cover of one of their issues. As
they had hoped, this created a lot of buzz, though I doubt that will translate
to sales.
What
people need to understand is that, in 2013, as I type this, print media is
dead. Do I wish it was? Absolutely not. But it is.
This shameless attempt at attention is proof of that, but really, people
shouldn’t be mad because this type of thing happens far too often.
The
message that this issue of Rolling Stone sends to people who have twisted and
warped enough minds to commit such acts is this: “If you don’t have talent and can’t make it
into our pages as an actor, musician, artist or whatever else we write about,
just blow some people up and you can share history with Britney Spears and
Johnny Depp”.
This is
not a message that anyone should want to convey, and furthermore when the next
psycho comes out and does something like this, will Rolling Stone take any
credit? When the person who murdered
your family gets on the cover of Rolling Stone, will you then play the freedom
of speech card?
Okay,
now he’s the true confession from someone who is willing to tell you like it
is.
You remember
when I told you that print media is dead?
Oh, it still is, but the fact is that even online news reporting has
taking a turn for the worst. I fully
understand that as a writer myself this is not something that I should be
saying (because in some ways it points out that I’m not really needed), but
hey, let’s break it down for you anyway.
Once upon
a time, people got their news delivered to them every day, sometimes up to
twice a day, in a newspaper. Now they
get their news immediately via text messaging, among other avenues. Not only has the world turned digital, but
it has cut out anything that once before seemed necessary to journalism and
placed it all in the hands of amateurs.
Question: How many of you go to a website to read
reviews of music, movies, television, or whatever? With social media, how many of you just read
your Facebook newsfeed or what your friends are saying on Twitter about things
such as those instead? Odds also might
be good that at least one of your friends has a blog, so maybe you read that.
The
point is, whenever you get a DVD from a mainstream store it usually has press
quotes from Peter Travers of Rolling Stone pasted all over it. But I’ve never met Peter Travers, never even
seen so much as a picture of him, so why should I trust his taste in
movies? (Additionally, don’t you feel as
if Mr. Travers has seen enough movies in his vast years that he might be burnt
out?)
So you
turn to your friends. And it’s not like
you have to go to school or set up some sort of arrangement to get together in
order to ask them what new movies they’ve seen that they like. No, you simply read their Facebook feed and
they most likely divulge the information without anyone ever asking for
it. I know I would personally much
rather poll my Facebook friends for suggestions on thing than trust someone who
writes for these big publications that now have turned into websites and, well,
the people there might as well be anonymous for all we know.
Once
upon a time, people did rely on the critic for reviews of things. Now, the sad truth is that anyone with an
iPhone can be a critic. Anyone with a
Facebook or Twitter account can become your source for finding out what’s new
and good.
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