On Sun, 18 Mar 2012 10:15:55 -0400, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote:


"Richard" wrote in message
om...
On 3/17/2012 10:10 AM, Ed Huntress wrote:
...

Anyway, I had a course in 1971, taught by a prof named John Abel,
who
later became VP of the NAB. In that course, one of John's theories
was
that cable would lead to a division of the public into isolated
segments who got their news from "narrowcasting" cablecasters,
highly
biased and catering to the political and social views of that
segment.
The politically and socially homogonizing tendency of major-network
news would die out and we would all live in our own little
realities,
reinforced by our choice of news sources.

Is that still a "theory", or has it become broadcasting "law"?

How does this differ from the old print media?

jsw

It doesn't. To a degree, it's a return to identity politics, like we
had before the 1940s.

The difference is that we've transitioned from a period of economic
levelling, national communication of similar information, and a
centering of politics that allowed compromise. We're in a period of
isolation and ideological hardening of the arteries.

If you take a long historical view, this is more what the country was
like before we had instant, nationwide communication. We're becoming
tribal.

--
Ed Huntress