wheel - 11:23 pm on Oct 6, 2008 (gmt 0)

>>>My conclusion was that the media is becoming irrelevant in some ways and in other ways corrupt.

that's a very astute synopsis IMO.

UGC, and all the grassroots bloggers and internet media are excellent, as they're 'by the people'. Commercial interests mean little and thus don't necessarily bias much in that sphere. The drawback is that there's next to no validation or accountability.

I'd expect the validation or accountability to be there in mainstream media, and believe it used to be there. But what I see from mainstream media is very little reporting. It's mostly op-ed pieces spewed out as reporting or investigative journalism, and that means no accountability either. If the mainstream media actually reported instead of opining and commenting, I'd buy into their concerns a bit more than I do. As it stands right now, mainstream media is *less* accountable and perhaps even less reliable than UGC and the blogosphere.

Mainstream media is still full of cash, but their rapidly turning into dinosaurs. Do 20 somethings even get their news from these sources anymore? Ultimately, I'd bet that we may eventually see some firefight from the mainstream folks yet, as perhaps their last gasp or the flames as they pull a pheonix :).