David Simon

In David Simon's testament at a Senate Hearing, he states that both the old form and new form of medias that pass on the news are not sufficient in the way they present information to the public. He says, "Well, a plague on both their houses. High end journalism is dying in America..." The internet is to be the new means of how the news is spread, the way it is now is not how it should be. "...a new economic model is achieved it will not be reborn on the web or anywhere else." With these statements, I have to agree. Newspapers can be said to leave certain facts out to show their own opinions. Editorials are becoming a main attraction. I had thought that newspapers were originally meant to be neutral, even by reading the first sentence in the article by the Toronto Sun, I can see where the journalist stands with his opinions about Rob Ford. The old form, being the newspapers, have an idea that they were "heroically serving democracy only to be undone by a cataclysmic shift in technology," as stated by David Simon.
As with new media, David says, "it leaches that reporting from mainstream news publications..." and "... contributes little more than repetition, commentary and froth. Meanwhile readers acquire news from aggregators and abandon their point of origin.... Some of the internet community is rampantly ideological, ridiculously inaccurate and occasionally juvenile. Some of it is also quite good, even original." I have to both disagree and agree with David's statement since it contradicts itself saying the internet community is both good and bad. We had talked in class about how in some instances, such as the terrorist attacks in a Kenyan mall, citizen journalists can be first responders and in fact contribute a great deal.
David believes that citizen journalists cannot be expected to give full reports like journalists since journalism is a profession. Training is to be taken and reports are to be proof read and looked over by others. Bloggers and citizen journalists don't press their sources and double check if they are true. David explains this with metaphors; a neighbour who is a good listener and cares about people is a good neighbour, not a trained social worker; a neighbour with a garden hose and good intentions is not a trained firefighter. Although this is true, bloggers, tweeters, and citizen journalists are meant to entertain the community. A new economic model is needed for our news to be spread efficiently while still appealing to the fast moving generation.
re: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTJl0gWySJA