schrockmedia

A recent story in USC's Online Journalism Review prompted me to comment, particularly about the need for greater and more detailed statistics in analysis of the success of convergent media efforts.

David Zurawik's negative early review of the latest (and last) season of The Wire, which focuses on the media, was a profound disappointment to me. The Wire creator David Simon worked at the Sun, and news media is frequently referenced in the political story arcs. In season two, episode 11, Simon even had a cameo one in a crowd of reporters asking Sobotka for a response to political rival Valchek taking him away in handcuffs. So I was hopeful his talent for depicting enormous economic and social realities of American urban life would carry over to current challenges in new media. It sounds like this season of The Wire is not nearly this timely. Instead of addressing contemporary newsroom, it instead focuses on the ability of one journalist to pursue a particular agenda. While this fits in with the highly personal tone of the show, it doesn't sound like it offers as astute a critique of the media as, say, the educational system in season four.

Hockenberry's searing indictment of the media is everything that The Wire, it seems, won't be. (disclaimer: I write for the online version of Technology Review.) The media has screwed the pooch on possibilities of new technologies and news, choosing to focus on human interest side despite overwhelmingly more newsworthy stories. As we've become self-involved as a society, we refuse the intellectual challenge news offers, looking inward instead of outward. Reminds me of De Zengotita's idea of the "flattered self." is our society so interested in endless line of stories that cater exclusively to our own self-interests? That pander to, not challenge, our preconceptions?

Labels: the wire hockenberry zurawik media television news