1) Surveillance - This isn't snooping but refers to the news and information role of the media

2) Interpretation

3) Linkage

4) Establishing Values

5) Entertainment

2) Interpretation

What do events mean?
The amount of space (or time) given to a story influences our perception of its importance. As in the "New York Post" headline on the previous page and the cartoon to the right, the media can draw our focus away from important issues to less important ones.

Perfect examples of this are the coverage of the adultery of Tiger Woods and the arrest of Lindsay Lohan.

As I mentioned in the discussion on "decoding" increasingly, people rely on "media pundits" such as commentators and columnists to tell us what things mean. Social and political critics fear this loss of independent thinking leads to poor decisions in politics and in life.

As the Doonesbury cartoon to the right shows, even "entertainment" can contain interpretation.

Positive Consequences of Interpretation

1) Diversity of Opinion

2) Access to Experts

Unless you suffer from Selective Exposure. Then, you only see one side of an issue, and you limit your access to experts.

Negative Consequences of Interpretation

1) To the organization - Loss of revenue if audiences reject your product due to Selective Exposure.

2) To the individual - Loss of ability to form personal decisions.

Blogging has its ancestors in the still existing USENET and the pre-Internet Bulletin Board Systems such as Fidonet. What makes blogging so powerful is that anyone can set up a web blog - no experience required, no rules enforced, no geekness needed.

"Blogging technology has, for the first time in history, given the average Jane the ability to write, edit, design, and publish her own editorial product - to be read and responded to by millions of people, potentially - for around $0 to $200 a year. It has begun to deliver on some of the wild promises about the Internet that were heard in the 1990's. Never before have so many passionate outsiders - hundreds of thousands, at minimum - stormed the ramparts of professional journalism."

As we discussed in "The Communications Setting" the Internet has made a wealth of opinion available.