If it's just the audience, then what was different a few decades ago, when the media was far less partisan and more trusted? I don't think that explains the full picture.
The media is terrible because the people who go into the media are terrible. So then we could ask what changed about who goes into media in the past few decades. The lar…
If it's just the audience, then what was different a few decades ago, when the media was far less partisan and more trusted? I don't think that explains the full picture.
The media is terrible because the people who go into the media are terrible. So then we could ask what changed about who goes into media in the past few decades. The largest shift, of course, is that the media now largely consists of young, college-educated, leftist women. That was not the case 50 years ago.
Why did that demographic shift happen? One reason is certainly the rampant credential inflation leading to a media industry that all but requires a degree from a 4-year university and possibly a graduate degree, often from a far-left university in a left-leaning city. Furthermore, these graduates feel entitled to an elite position in society due to their prestigious credentials, but many end up living in a closet in Manhattan doing the equivalent of writing listicles for BuzzFeed. Rather than blaming their lack of success on their own choice to pursue a low ROI college major and go into a very competitive industry, they blame the "societal structure" itself, capitalism, the patriarchy, etc. They find any way they can to cope with the knowledge that their working-class, low-prestige classmate from their home town is making 5 times more money than them as a plumber.
Why did the credential inflation happen in the first place? The best candidate I can think of is the Higher Education Act of 1965. The timelines certainly seem to line up.
A few decades ago the difference was a less competitive media industry with much higher barriers to entry and fewer players coupled with the fact that TV was a new medium for broadcasting, and it wasn’t until several decades into news broadcasting that people figured out that negativity sells.
Your explanation doesn’t explain the equally warped Big Picture conveyed by right-wing media.
If it's just the audience, then what was different a few decades ago, when the media was far less partisan and more trusted? I don't think that explains the full picture.
The media is terrible because the people who go into the media are terrible. So then we could ask what changed about who goes into media in the past few decades. The largest shift, of course, is that the media now largely consists of young, college-educated, leftist women. That was not the case 50 years ago.
Why did that demographic shift happen? One reason is certainly the rampant credential inflation leading to a media industry that all but requires a degree from a 4-year university and possibly a graduate degree, often from a far-left university in a left-leaning city. Furthermore, these graduates feel entitled to an elite position in society due to their prestigious credentials, but many end up living in a closet in Manhattan doing the equivalent of writing listicles for BuzzFeed. Rather than blaming their lack of success on their own choice to pursue a low ROI college major and go into a very competitive industry, they blame the "societal structure" itself, capitalism, the patriarchy, etc. They find any way they can to cope with the knowledge that their working-class, low-prestige classmate from their home town is making 5 times more money than them as a plumber.
Why did the credential inflation happen in the first place? The best candidate I can think of is the Higher Education Act of 1965. The timelines certainly seem to line up.
A few decades ago the difference was a less competitive media industry with much higher barriers to entry and fewer players coupled with the fact that TV was a new medium for broadcasting, and it wasn’t until several decades into news broadcasting that people figured out that negativity sells.
Your explanation doesn’t explain the equally warped Big Picture conveyed by right-wing media.