No more Wolf, no more Limbaugh ...

Colorado-Valley · Intermediate Crude Joined: Aug 16, 2004 Posts: 732

If you understand American corporate media, news is just the filler they put between what's really important -- advertising.

If energy depletion begins to crush the global markets, many of these big corporations that pay for the existence of CNN, FOX, ABC, CBS, etc. may begin going bankrupt and not have the funds anymore to buy advertising.

Now its no big deal to me -- I've watched these outlets become hopelessly corrupted and would not miss them in the least. Perhaps there might be official state media, or the Republicans might pay to keep Fox on the air, but I doubt it. These are expensive operations, especially CNN, which, despite going downhill after Ted Turner left, still maintains professional reporter bureaus around the world.

So, as oil depletion becomes a crisis and the corporate economy fails, how will we get news in the future? Will we even have a local newspaper anymore? Afterall, those are mostly paid for by car dealers and housing-developers and related industries.

There are public news sources like NPR, the BBC and PBS, but would there be the money to fund them? And even worse, might they become government propaganda outlets rather than news operations?

seldom_seen · Fission Joined: Apr 12, 2005 Posts: 2037

If we get to a point where massive global media conglomerates start to break in to piecies and can't afford to keep their tee vee stations running. My guess is what we will see, er I mean listen to lots more radio for news.

Assuming the FCC dissolves at some point, the radio waves will basically be set free. So resourceful people will set up radio stations in their regions or locales. Low power requirements (relatively speaking), with not a lot of equipment required (compared to running a tee vee station or keeping the internet online).

UIUCstudent01 · Intermediate Crude Joined: Mar 10, 2005 Posts: 894

I don't think TV will go down, period. (Maybe not until like 150 years from now...) Not in my lifetime. The control/information it provides is somewhat necessary.
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RonMN · Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 5:18 am Post subject:

I have a 20 year old boom box that get's AM, FM, SW1 (short wave), SW2 and SW3...8 D batteries will keep it running for about 3-4 years. I don't plan on tossing it!!!

bart · Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 6:10 am Post subject:

Interesting thought-topic, Colorado-Valley.

I wouldn't miss the corporate media, either. Most of what they do is not "news" as I understand it, but entertainment and veiled propaganda. Arguably, we would be better informed without them, since we would have a chance to read books, think and talk to one another. This seems to have been the case in 19th Century America.

We might have fewer sources of information, but higher quality.

There would still be a broadcast industry, no matter what, since governments find it indispensable. Radio, in particular, is a cheap way to reach a wide audience.

I would guess that everyone would want to have the Internet continue, since the benefits it provides are so great.

As we re-localize, the community media will make a comeback -- the small town paper might become the small town webpage. Sponsors would be the small businesses that used to sponsor the newspapers and radio stations 50 years ago.