Your Own World Wide Web

The Internet is hailed as the great equalizer, but increasingly its content is being consumed for anything but an egalitarian purpose. The increasing political partisanship in America is certainly just a new issue within the broader spectrum of democratic systems of government; but the accessibility, or at least the selectivity with which citizens can choose their ideological stimulus, is greatly facilitated by the World Wide Web. As traditional media outlets are under a flux of revision to stay relevant, new media have arisen which no longer has to follow the old system where to be a successful media outlet a variety of opinions and a certain objective fairness was necessary to appeal to spectrum of consumers. Now the consumer can come directly to the media, and the media of their choice. While this apparent democracy of choice in an individual's selection of news might be praised as revolutionary and progressive by new media adherents, it also presents a difficult problem to the pursuit of an open, fair and non-partisan body of news. The objective watchdog function of media is under threat from the multitudes of biased, politicized commentators that can now be heard exclusively without much effort.

When it comes to choosing, people appear more than content to ignore the hard to deal with but vitally important news, in favor of news that confirms their opinion of the world. In a New York Times editorial Nicholas Kristof cites the use of the phrase "The Daily Me" by an M.I.T. scholar to describe the increasing trend of Internet news consumers to tailor their inflow of news to support and validate their worldview rather than be confronted by opposing or contradictory views in the news. This trend is even clearly visible off the net; as consumers grow more and more demanding and politically polarized they turn to news outlets more supportive of their views. Fox News is a readily available example of the increase in partisan selectivity with news-seeking consumers, but the problem is not that a news outlet is biased, but that consumers can now almost exclusively turn to it for all the news they think they need to hear. In the case of Fox the indicators of increasing bias and political partisanship fueled by the demands of their viewers can be observed in the popularity of some of Fox's commentators and more frighteningly respected.

Of course the opposite of the right leaning Fox exists too, and many people point to the massive popularity of Comedy Central's The Daily Show and The Colbert Report as indicative of left leaning "newstainment". Sometimes they even spar, which happened this week when Stephen Colbert did a segment on the rising new star Fox News Commentator Glenn Beck.

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Colbert's mocking tone of Beck's maudlin sincerity draws a less serious line between the difference that's emerging between right and left media outlets: the right apparently can't take a joke.

The most discouraging thing about the trend toward personalized ideologically reaffirming news content is apparently Fox and the widely believed conservative blog "The Drudge Report" are apparently the most centrist news organizations according to a UCLA study of media bias. The coverage of the report by Spin Watch.org, a UK based PR and media watchdog group, shows that even information about the bias of information might be biased. Similar media watchdog groups like Media Matters.org ideologically liberal too, making it a difficult job for the media, liberal, conservative or centrist to be objective. The traditional news media, who have long held editorial tendencies toward promoting one political viewpoint , were at least concerned with the principals of journalistic ethnics and the pursuit of truth, especially when it came to matters of public importance.

The dispersal of information and the speed at which it is accessible is often hailed as an unqualified success for democracy, and life in general, but to be honest I worry if anyone is still interested in hearing the important stuff anymore. At least when media outlets were limited there was general discussion fostered by those who shared in its consumption. Now if you don't like the news, you just go find your own. Rather than engage people who have different opinions, its easier just to find someone who'll agree with your held viewpoint. It's like each ideology can now foster groups of "yes men" without even trying.