Sunday, June 03, 2012

The Dangers of Independent Journalism

Norwegian media boffins recently surveyed Scandinavian public opinion and discovered that people prefer to get their Internet news from sources other than MSM sites.

Horrors! We can’t have that, now, can we? Why — people might start questioning the consensus, and then where would we be?

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer has translated an article about this disturbing trend. The translator includes this note:

This article fits in nicely with the ‘Radio Free Norway’ post that you published yesterday.

Professor Frank Aarebrot, who is mentioned in this article, testified in ‘Circus Breivik’ the other day. In his testimony he adamantly claimed that the fact that Norwegian journalists are mostly left-wing have absolutely no bearing whatsoever on the way news is presented in Norway. And it certainly, according to the good professor, doesn’t mean that the political left in Norway receives preferential treatment.

However, in this article he does express concern that the lamestream media in Scandinavia seem to be losing their grip on the news monopoly.

Also notice that the journalists themselves get their information mainly from… other journalists! They don’t go outside the consensus, either. Big surprise there!

Here’s the translated article from Nordiske Mediedager (Nordic Media Festival):

Journalists lose their grip on the net

Large sections of Scandinavian media users prefer websites that aren’t edited by journalists.

“Disturbing,” says Professor Frank Aarebrot.

Earlier in May, Professor Aarebrot presented the unique Scandinavian media survey conducted by Respons Analyse for the Nordic Media Festival (NMD).

According to the survey approximately a third of media users in Denmark, Sweden and Norway answered that they prefer “other websites” rather than those that are edited and published by the media when asked to clarify what type of websites best met their interests.

Skips journalism

“This means that they sidestep the journalistic link. It is a development that I find rather troublesome, and it is a development which I believe ought to be debated. We find that more or less confused people seek out internet forums and blogs which are not subjected to journalistic quality control and source verification in order to corroborate their world views,” says Professor Frank Aarebrot of the University of Bergen.

A similar survey of Scandinavian journalists shows that journalists still prefer traditional media controlled websites.

“I have to admit that I would feel more at ease if the conclusion had been that journalists were the most avid users of other websites. After all it is their job to seek out and estimate the quality of information, and this invariably means that they have to look for information on ‘amateur’ websites,” Professor Aarebrot says.

Least left wing in Norway

The media survey has been conducted since 1999 by the Nordic Media Festival. This year, for the first time, it was conducted in all three Scandinavian countries. Approximately 4000 journalists and members of the public were asked nearly 50 questions about media habits, media quality, relevance and trust in the media.

Professor Aarebrot could reveal big disparities between the Scandinavian nations, not just among the general population but also among journalists.

The traditional “journalists’ parliament” this time also included all the Scandinavian countries. The survey shows that journalists in all three Scandinavian nations are left-wing, but to a greater extent in Sweden and Denmark than in Norway.

In Norway SV (socialistic Left), AP (Labour) and Venstre (the Liberals) are heavily favoured by journalists. While in Sweden there is a strong overrepresentation of journalists who vote for Vänsterpartiet (The Left Party) and Miljøpartiet (The Green Party). In Denmark Radikale Venstre (the Radical Left), a traditional centre party which is a member of the red-green coalition government is the big winner among journalists.

The Scandinavian Media Survey is conducted by Respons Analyse A/S. The survey was carried out between February 16 and March 2, 2012. Approximately 600 journalists and 800 members of the public in each of the three Scandinavian countries participated in the survey.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I read some time back that the Mediterranean noir genre of fiction was popular in Italy because the novels were more like real life than the untruths in the press & the lies that issue forth from the mouths of politicians.

Check out guys like Massimo Carlotto, for instance.

K. from Germany said...

"journalistic quality control" = censorship

James Boom said...

Just as the printing press changed the world so has the internet.
Although the freedom of the internet is under attack.
Your worthiness as a journalist is now dependent on your ability to provide quality and vigorous content. Your education or bank balance will count for zero. Rehashing propaganda to make crap sound good does not work anymore, the people can see this and know your codework.
If your interested in the weather or fashion the mass media are fine, but for most of us the internet let's us see through the smoke and mirrors.
It's all very well to take an oath and say you have journalistic integrity when you receive your (Indoctrination)degree, but that does'nt mean anything to freedom loving people who don't fundamentally agree with you.
The mass media have lost any authority they had, because they have metamorhosed away from their primary role - content.

Dymphna said...

@ Mr. Boom:

I like your website. Recording people for posterity is a fine idea. Your site will have historical value some day.

I hadn't seen that poem/song before. Very Kiplingesque? I like the last verse:

We are the sons of Australia,
of the men who fashioned the land;
We are the sons of the women
Who walked with them hand in hand;
And we swear by the dead who bore us,
By the heroes who blazed the trail,
No foe shall gather our harvest,
Or sit on our stockyard rail.


It reminds me of why Texans and Aussies seem to be similar breeds.

And like the Danes, they are both friendly and open-handed.

Henrik R Clausen said...

I actually attended a (fairly expensive) course in "Journalistic quality control", not realizing in advance that I'd be taught to exclude relevant stories as "Not objective" - if they related to Islam, of course.

Boy, was that a waste of time & money...

Anonymous said...

Inquisitors on stage
in see-through clothes

Journalistic quality control, mind you...

Just using such a term in public shows you what? A total lack of sense of reality. A total contempt for the - low, un-academic and unintellectual, not state university trained, thus unqualified - people.

The good thing about these testimonies, however, is that one after the other puts on show for the whole world to see ..their own qualities, or total lack thereof.

Little wannabe-emperors in their new see-through clothes

Lars Gule, Frank Aarebrot, Matthias Gardell have all been on stage, but there are still more.

They re putting up a show worth watching. One of the jury, took the opportunity to play a few rounds ofsolitaire, during Gardell's performance, though.


- Let the show go on!

Anonymous said...

TheReligiousCynic's comment to the fact that Ayaan Hirsi Ali hardly is any prophet in Norway, referring to the Springer Prize she was given in Berlin, the speech she gave, and extreme leftistGardell's mentioning her in court.

"God is dead. Instead we've got Gule, Guillou and Gardell...

Let's look at the bright side of things."

Anonymous said...

Ship To Gaza Heroes
Gardell speaks