Amplified

As Daniel pointed out in class, information and "news" presented by local outlets is very limited. It is decreasing in importance because we hold other topics and sources to be more relevant.

At the beginning of Chapter 12 (introducing the future of television), there was a quote by writer David Foster Wallace that exemplifies the point,"Television is the way it is simply because people tend to be extremely similar in their vulgar and prurient and dumb interests and wildly different in
their refined and aesthetic and noble interests.”

Traditional broadcast media on a local scale has to target a broad audience of a large, diverse city. They focus on their specialty, what national networks don't talk about - specific, local events. And to make these interesting, they often rely on sensationalism tactics. They have to focus on broad stories, because they can't afford to alienate by focusing on niche interests.

But everybody gets tired of hearing the same information and stories repeatedly. The water cooler days of mass culture are changing and we no longer care about the same broad topics. We don't all need to know the same stuff, because focusing on our specialties creates collective knowledge. You know specific people that you turn to for discussion - the sports guy, the movie guy, the music guy. The same applies to recommendation - turn to a friend that can give you a trusted review of a product, their word or experience. And in the age of review - we can read numerous reviews by other users and judge from there.

We have social networks that connect us to people with common interests, and we can still have discussions and can be "aware citizens." Stories and information that are important to us are spread through word of mouth (/interpersonal communication) and the internet amplifies it. Fast, efficient, popular, connected, relevant.