Filter Bubbles: Tune in or out, its your choice

History is always bound to repeat itself … History is always bound to repeat itself… History is always bound to repeat itself … History is always bound to repeat itself… History is always bound to repeat itself … History is always bound to repeat itself…

When reading this article, this statement of History is always bound to repeat itself is something we cannot ignore. For this reading, the history that is repeating itself is how we, as natural consumers, retrieve the news and information outside of our own personal realm.

I am going to completely honest, I was at a tug of war (I hope this expression is correct) as to the stance of the reading. So as a read through the reading, I targeted some intersecting statement and passage that I found the need to emphasize on and make practical connections to. I love when the reading ties into exactly what we do in our class work (Thanks Dr. Zamora!).

“Unless newspapers could think of themselves as behavioral data companies with a mission of churning out information about their ‘ readers’ preferences… they were sunk.”

In a sense in this statement and in the opening of the reading, we are seeing old school news papers are loosing to these customized filtered bubble new age of advertisement. This word filter is a common vocabulary used within our Net Narr community, just in different context. In a sense, I see filter as a new era of giving people the new they WANT to know about, not necessarily need… But is that a good thing? This is where my tug of war starts to kick in.

Jumping along through the reading, we see how the emerging of the development of “people-powered news” as compared to leaving the news to be detected and picked by opined editors. Quite honestly, I am not truly sure how I feel about this. On one hand, it is great to have my voice heard in the news I want to broadcast into the world, but will it be as accurate and professional as the newsmen? But then again, are these professional truly the professionals we think they are?

The readings gives a prime example of this in the 2004 election of President Bush. I am not truly big on reading about politics and I know that is not a good thing, but I was more interested in the fact that it was on the fence if this information was true or not. But the point of the matter is this … who do we believe?

A new Middleman

This is the portion of the reading where I found really juicy! We start to question the ethics of newspapermen and the information they are dishing out. The prime example of today’s “newspapermen” I can think of is TMZ or the Shaderoom. Even though their news information in mainly based on the web, their source and lack of ethics puts into the news they are covering. Instead, they use their news related platforms to pull consumers in for entertainment, rather than giving vital and important information

But to get back to the point of the of the new Middleman is taking away that human filter (newspapermen) so that there is not such filter getting in the way of consumers and the information they crave. This sounds good, right? No “evil middle man” sitting between us and what we want sounds good (pg 60)… guess again! The media is our new Middleman.

“The word media… comes from the Latin for middle layer.”

Since starting this Writing Studies Program, the word media has been in my vocabulary but I never truly knew what it meant. So it was nice to actual put the definition to the term. The reading helped me make the connection of the new Middleman… the new filter that is blocking us as consumers from the truth.

Disintermediation:

1. reduction in the use of intermediaries between producers and consumers, for example by investing directly in the securities market rather than through a bank.

Middleman in news reporting: That human infused filter that could alter or interpret the news in which way they want it to be perceived. But the new middleman is our media.