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One of the things which is not addressed in the article as much as it should be, is the increasing cynicism and discomfort that a lot of teenagers and twentysomethings feel towards Big Media. With an ever increasing monopoly, a shrill and thoroughly polarised columnist culture which has largely abandoned reason for empty pontificating and the horrible errors of judgement and pack mentality which continue to dog major news outlets (eg Whitewater and WMDs), is it any wonder that people of my generation have largely tuned out?
I graduated from journalism 3 years ago completely disgusted with the industry, and nothing in the last few years has changed my opinion of it. I still avidly follow the news, but when major reporters and outlets continually lie, cover-up and do every thing they can to bury stories which do not toe their publisher's line, it becomes difficult to tell people my age to follow major stories. Because of this, a lot of younger people realise that you have to read across a broad spectrum of media in order to make sense of the big issues. This requires a lot of will and time which, surprise, people just don't have.
We know that stories about Britney, Brad and Angelina are largely bull, planted by PR agents - but there is a certain comfort is being able to read these stories and not have to care that they are made up, or embroidered to a ridiculous extent. This becomes far more frustrating when you read a broadsheet or a tabloid reporting on a major story like Iraq and you know that what you are getting is being run through so many ideological, political and economic filters that it becomes difficult to believe you are getting anything resembling the full story.
