Even globally, the traditional “journalism” is disintegrating.
The New York Times published an editorial urging Biden not to run again. Before that, Biden insisted, but he gave up after that editorial.
Biden is a believer in traditional journalism, believing that “decency” and “grace” are important to a person. This is also the elite personality shaped by traditional media.
The New York Times has achieved economic success through paid subscriptions and defending copyright. However, it has become a closed, paid institution. On various pages, you can only read a few dozen or a hundred words, and then you have to pay to read more.
Paying seems to be a matter of course. But how can you criticize Musk’s “you vote, I pay”?
“Paid content” turns content into a direct commodity. It can make money and support the institution; however, this is not “journalism.” True journalism must strive to reach everyone. When that information threshold is erected, it means a real shift.
When I was visiting Columbia University, I could read the Wall Street Journal for free because I had a Columbia ID. Columbia students read it for free for a few years, and they can definitely afford to renew their subscriptions after graduation. This is the reproduction of the “elite.” But for ordinary Americans, it is unlikely to spend hundreds of dollars a year to read the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
That was a “good world,” it was yours. Now “we” want to build our own. Look at the election map of the swing states, almost submerged in red.
Trump’s victory 8 years ago was the victory of self-media super-individuals. At that time, his opponent was Hillary, who was also the embodiment of institutional media.
This year’s victory is the self-media super-individual plus platform support. Trump even experienced “account suspension,” and everyone laughed, but they didn’t know that this was the real coronation of the self-media era.
I read my friend Erxiang’s article, and there are a group of self-media internet celebrities around Trump. They don’t have as many Taylor Swift fans, but they are all bursting with combat effectiveness. Their voices can more effectively reach ordinary people. A new “organizational form,” the union of super-individuals.
Trump’s lens always focuses on himself; he is narcissistic and vulgar, but also approachable, and has actually become the embodiment of millions of fans.
Hillary is accustomed to displaying group photos and her team. Her speeches are wonderful, her wording is elegant, which is the crystallization of the discourse system of the traditional media era, and also the last brilliance of this discourse.
The confrontation between Trump and Hillary is the real confrontation. The next two times, there was nothing new, but the division between the two worlds became larger, and Trump and his world became larger. Eight years ago, it might have been the harbinger of the “new world,” and now it is a reconfirmation.
Information and communication are still important, more important than in the past. However, the disintegration of traditional institutions seems inevitable. The power to control information is being redistributed—of course, this is happening in a free society.
Yes, it still needs to wait until several TV stations “announce” that Trump has truly won. Many people are still waiting for “authoritative news” and are unwilling to admit it until the last moment.
But the powerful self-media and individuals have already obtained the answer through remodeling. They don’t need “final confirmation,” they don’t need “the last moment,” they are ahead, always ahead.
This is not to say that news and journalists are no longer important. Perhaps, those self-media fighting on the front lines represent “true journalism.”
Even the principles of three reviews and three corrections, cross-checking of sources, etc., of traditional institutions are already in jeopardy under the impact of new technologies, and sometimes seem ridiculous.
There are videos every day on self-media about the Columbia University student protest. Reporters from the New York Times and the Washington Post were on campus, they “undercover” and observed. Days after the police took major action, in-depth reports were published, but they had almost no influence—it was no longer in the chain of dissemination.
I can clearly feel the arrival of this new world, and I am terrified.
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