Journalism

Discuss the application of the Dharma to situations of social, political, environmental and economic suffering and injustice.
Post Reply
User avatar
maybay
Posts: 1604
Joined: Thu Sep 22, 2011 4:12 pm

Journalism

Post by maybay »

What is the purpose of journalism? Entertainment, education, 4th pillar of government, essential component of civil society?
People will know nothing and everything
Remember nothing and everything
Think nothing and everything
Do nothing and everything
- Machig Labdron
User avatar
Yavana
Posts: 1158
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2016 5:15 am
Location: Trumpaloka

Re: Journalism

Post by Yavana »

maybay wrote:What is the purpose of journalism? Entertainment, education, 4th pillar of government, essential component of civil society?
Op eds.
User avatar
maybay
Posts: 1604
Joined: Thu Sep 22, 2011 4:12 pm

Re: Journalism

Post by maybay »

phpBB [video]
People will know nothing and everything
Remember nothing and everything
Think nothing and everything
Do nothing and everything
- Machig Labdron
User avatar
maybay
Posts: 1604
Joined: Thu Sep 22, 2011 4:12 pm

Re: Journalism

Post by maybay »

Maybe its just another variety of sentimentalism.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoilt_Rotten
People will know nothing and everything
Remember nothing and everything
Think nothing and everything
Do nothing and everything
- Machig Labdron
User avatar
Yavana
Posts: 1158
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2016 5:15 am
Location: Trumpaloka

Re: Journalism

Post by Yavana »

maybay wrote:Maybe its just another variety of sentimentalism.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoilt_Rotten
Here in the states we're taught that journalism is a pillar of democratic government with a solemn responsibility to keep citizenry informed of things relevant to the goings-on of the world - like the details of how, when, and where one (or more of) the Kardashians' posteriors did this, that, or the other. It's like a sacred calling that some people have to stick their noses into all kinds of places for the greater good of informing the public. Still, you seem to be getting at something with all of this talk of sentimentality but I'm not picking up on exactly what. Wasn't there a thread on sentimentality in Buddhism already, or does there need to be?
User avatar
maybay
Posts: 1604
Joined: Thu Sep 22, 2011 4:12 pm

Re: Journalism

Post by maybay »

If you can convince me this isn't already a thread about sentimentalism, I'll start another.
People will know nothing and everything
Remember nothing and everything
Think nothing and everything
Do nothing and everything
- Machig Labdron
User avatar
Yavana
Posts: 1158
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2016 5:15 am
Location: Trumpaloka

Re: Journalism

Post by Yavana »

maybay wrote:If you can convince me this isn't already a thread about sentimentalism, I'll start another.
...Dude, like, it's not.







Do you feel like it is?
User avatar
maybay
Posts: 1604
Joined: Thu Sep 22, 2011 4:12 pm

Re: Journalism

Post by maybay »

Journalists are some of the most mindless and distracted people I've ever met. They don't seem to have a clear idea of why they do what they do. Recently I've had much to do with them so I want to understand them better. But if I tell you exactly what I'm getting at about sentimentality, you might just give me what you think I want to hear, which would be more journalism.
People will know nothing and everything
Remember nothing and everything
Think nothing and everything
Do nothing and everything
- Machig Labdron
User avatar
Yavana
Posts: 1158
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2016 5:15 am
Location: Trumpaloka

Re: Journalism

Post by Yavana »

maybay wrote:Journalists are some of the most mindless and distracted people I've ever met. They don't seem to have a clear idea of why they do what they do. Recently I've had much to do with them so I want to understand them better. But if I tell you exactly what I'm getting at about sentimentality, you might just give me what you think I want to hear, which would be more journalism.
So, I just watched that video in its entirety. Interesting that you're dealing so closely with journalists. You know, I have to wonder whether the core issue is really what journalism is supposed to be in theory rather than what it is in reality. If you resonate with that daily show piece living in SA, maybe average people there have the same diminished sense of civic responsibility over there that people manifest here. Still, that doesn't seem to raise the issue of whether journalism is simply sentimentalism as it does of why sentimentalism sells—why that drives sales rather than other things.

:shrug:
User avatar
Yavana
Posts: 1158
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2016 5:15 am
Location: Trumpaloka

Re: Journalism

Post by Yavana »

As far as the book and its summary... I've never really understood the sentimentality that people in places like Europe or even that some liberal-type Anglo Americans embrace and I've never bothered to take a close look into what it was comprised of. In all honest frankness, I always just considered it to be self-delusion and a flagrant symptom of some kind of societal decline. Like, for example, people who were super surprised by the Boston Bombing and acted as if it made them deeply sad despite the fact that they, personally, did know anyone affected by that incident. I don't understand that. I understand sympathy and pity, I understand mustering compassion in contemplation, but I don't understand "sending hopes and prayers" and needing to "keep faith in humanity."
User avatar
maybay
Posts: 1604
Joined: Thu Sep 22, 2011 4:12 pm

Re: Journalism

Post by maybay »

The Cicada wrote:As far as the book and its summary... I've never really understood the sentimentality that people in places like Europe or even that some liberal-type Anglo Americans embrace and I've never bothered to take a close look into what it was comprised of. In all honest frankness, I always just considered it to be self-delusion and a flagrant symptom of some kind of societal decline. Like, for example, people who were super surprised by the Boston Bombing and acted as if it made them deeply sad despite the fact that they, personally, did know anyone affected by that incident. I don't understand that. I understand sympathy and pity, I understand mustering compassion in contemplation, but I don't understand "sending hopes and prayers" and needing to "keep faith in humanity."
I think you're on to something there. Journalism as the ritual of a nationalistic, secular humanism. Back when we had 3 TV channels, the daily news, always at 7pm, with its sport section followed by weather, was THE ritual of the day. I rejected TV about the same time I started meditation. Now I still read Twitter, but it's mostly direct from the sources.
People will know nothing and everything
Remember nothing and everything
Think nothing and everything
Do nothing and everything
- Machig Labdron
User avatar
Yavana
Posts: 1158
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2016 5:15 am
Location: Trumpaloka

Re: Journalism

Post by Yavana »

... And really considering all of this, a lot of things that simply filled a space as background noise in my mind make sense under the heading of emotional indulgence /"sentimentalism." In fact, sentimentalism might be to us what murderous spectator sport was to the Romans. Future civilizations will likely look back on the West, which had been "Christendom," as ending when men began crying during movies and helping with the dishes.

Joking but not, for what any of that input is worth.

:namaste:
User avatar
maybay
Posts: 1604
Joined: Thu Sep 22, 2011 4:12 pm

Re: Journalism

Post by maybay »

I want to come back to this, but I've got some reading to do before. In short, I see journalists avoiding the real issues, i.e. the conflict of cultural values, and the simple, animal logic of domination. They try to make politicians look profound and original, even evil, while making political situations seem more complex than they are. Anything for more stories.
People will know nothing and everything
Remember nothing and everything
Think nothing and everything
Do nothing and everything
- Machig Labdron
User avatar
Yavana
Posts: 1158
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2016 5:15 am
Location: Trumpaloka

Re: Journalism

Post by Yavana »

maybay wrote:I want to come back to this, but I've got some reading to do before. In short, I see journalists avoiding the real issues, i.e. the conflict of cultural values, and the simple, animal logic of domination. They try to make politicians look profound and original, even evil, while making political situations seem more complex than they are. Anything for more stories.
There are many things I don't understand about the mentality behind why things are often done the way they are. For example, I never understood the appeal of what I now know to be "Cartesian dualism" until I learned that it was basically formulated as an expedient to mollify the Catholic church for the sake of scientific pursuit. And its appeal still makes no sense to me outside of that. I look forward to your thoughts about this. Approaching the subject from the perspective of there being a problem of too much sentimentalism seems promising.

:namaste:
dreambow
Posts: 434
Joined: Sun Jan 18, 2015 12:59 am

Re: Journalism

Post by dreambow »

Cicada you are right, spot on. I recall when Princess Dianna died people were crying in the street, laying flowers....yet non of these people knew the woman or had any contact with her. Dianna was just a series of fashion photographs in various glossy magazines and the tabloids. Did the public really feel like they knew her or was it the press and journalists who were flogging the idea that 'she was the peoples princess?" The hoi polloi bought into it hook, line and sinker. Totally false, total sentimentality.
User avatar
Yavana
Posts: 1158
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2016 5:15 am
Location: Trumpaloka

Re: Journalism

Post by Yavana »

dreambow wrote:Cicada you are right, spot on. I recall when Princess Dianna died people were crying in the street, laying flowers....yet non of these people knew the woman or had any contact with her. Dianna was just a series of fashion photographs in various glossy magazines and the tabloids. Did the public really feel like they knew her or was it the press and journalists who were flogging the idea that 'she was the peoples princess?" The hoi polloi bought into it hook, line and sinker. Totally false, total sentimentality.
I didn't cry when my own mother died. Crying wasn't going to bring her back and it certainly wasn't going to make things easier. People will act out like that for Princess Diana and then scorn others for praying to the heavens.

:shrug:
tingdzin
Posts: 1947
Joined: Fri Feb 15, 2013 7:19 am

Re: Journalism

Post by tingdzin »

Sorry, didn't have time to watch the video, so my comments may not be what is being looked for.

Journalism, at least in theory, used to be about keeping people informed so they would not make decisions based on ignorance. Opinion pieces and news were kept rigorously separate. Nowadays, you can barely find a so-called news report that doesn't betray some obvious slant or bias if you look just a little below the surface, even with so-called "reputable" news outlets. The fact that journalism has declined into propaganda, in-dpeht interviews are usually puffpieces or "gotcha" games, and most "news" media is dedicated to crime, sports, entertainment, and other twaddle. Both a symptom of and a contributory cause to society's decline.

Parenthetically, the B.S. emotion on display after Princess Diana's death was incredible, from a people who got through WWII on a stiff upper lip. The same with the Boston bombing. What "the West" is going to do when the ship really starts hitting the sand is hard to imagine.
Post Reply

Return to “Engaged Buddhism”