When Orson Welles' famous newspaper magnate first takes over the New York Inquirer, he tells his editor that one of the changes he's planning on making is based on the idea that "the news happens 24 hours a day." Charles Foster Kane, like his real-life counterparts, was well-aware of this fact and the power of his medium to sway public opinion. Kane's creator, of course, was also well aware of the power of the newer mass media, radio and film, to mold that public opinion, and in the case of radio, to connect to that public instantaneously.
Television brought image and sound and simultaneity together, but broadcasting, like Hollywood, remained in the hands of a small number of corporate entities, thus limiting flow of information, largely in one direction.
But even in the era of the classic three-network structure, Americans didn't always get their news from the classic anchormen of the era. For years, people reported that they got much of their topical news from watching Johnny Carson's monologues on The Tonight Show. As late-night comedians prolifierated in the eighties, the names changed -- Letterman, Leno, Conan, Kimmel, Aresino, Craig (first Kilborn, now Ferguson), Chevy Chase (yeh, i know) -- but the idea was the same: open the show with some jokes about the current events. It wasn't Mort Sahl, who seemed to create spontaneous comic riffs as he went through the paper that he brought onto the nightclub stage -- it was highly polished and, this being television, rigorously timed so that no ads would be missed.
But more and more, we are getting our information by logging in to Facebook and other social media to see what our friends are posting. When you can sift through the cute pictures of animals and little children --- and okay, I have both animals and children in my house, so I understand -- you also find numerous links to web sites that your friends frequent -- or find out about from their FB friends.
One of the things about Facebook's adjustments to your News Feed is that somehow Facebook personalizes that feed based on what it thinks you would be most interested in, rather than posting materials from all your friends in straight chronological order. (You can create a feed that will do this, but it is a bit time-consuming if you have a lot of friends.) But as TED lecturer Eli Pariser noted, one problem with that feed is that if you are, say, a liberal, you will see mostly the latest posts of those who share your ideologies, and the posts from your more conservative friends will be seen less frequently, unless you make some of your own adjustments.
Thus, despite the sense of autonomy that you might feel as you surf the web, it's important to remember that there is always some method of selectivity, and as search engines become more and more familiar with your interests, there is a risk of becoming increasingly narrow-minded in your views.
The other thing I've seen in recent time spent on Facebook is that I'm still getting largely soundbite/blurb culture. I'm getting quick glimpses of the news, not always getting the full context, and no matter what side of the spectrum the FB post is, it's usually designed to evoke a strong emotional response, like this post about Congressman Akin's non-existent public statements about breast milk curing male homosexuality. On my phone, I didn't see that it was coming from a satiric web site, though I could see that more easily when i got to my computer. No intention to deceive on the part of my FB friend -- at least, I don't think so -- but it sure got the reaction. More than a few people posted it at their various blogs and twitter feeds as news.
Just because we are able to have greater editorial control over what we can consume from news, and contribute more easily to its production and distribution, does not necessarily lead to a better informed, more democratic public sphere. If navigating the infinite news streams were as easy as navigating the travel web sites for the best deal, perhaps we would have a better handle on what we really know is going on.
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