Shallowness, truthiness and keeping calm

Sometimes you just miss things and have to catch up. This piece, by James Fallows of the Atlantic, on “learning to love the (shallow, unreliable, divisive) new media” has been out for about six weeks.

But I only remembered it while conducting an archaeological dig in my inbox. Then I realised that I hadn’t read it properly. It’s an effective antidote to endlessly gloomy prognostications about the future of news media and journalism. Among other things, Fallows reminds us that prescriptions for journalism which ignore what people actually want to read about are little use (have a look at the ideas of Gawker’s founder for bringing down totalitarian regimes by beaming gossip in from offshore), that journalism frequently lurches between respectable and populist eras and that platforms for journalism are regularly upset and re-invented.

I hope to return to truthiness, Eli Pariser’s filter bubble and public reason before long. But I’m still trying to work out what I think.

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