Why the Internet Weakens the Authority of the Press

Interesting article about the Press. [Link]

It’s easily the most useful diagram I’ve found for understanding the
practice of journalism in the United States, and the hidden politics of that
practice. You can draw it by hand right now. Take a sheet of paper and make a
big circle in the middle. In the center of that circle draw a smaller one to
create a doughnut shape. Label the doughnut hole “sphere of consensus.” Call the
middle region “sphere of legitimate debate,” and the outer region “sphere of
deviance.”
That’s the entire model. Now you have a way to understand why
it’s so unproductive to argue with journalists about the deep politics of their
work. They don’t know about this freakin’ diagram! Here it is in its original
form, from the 1986 book The Uncensored War by press scholar Daniel C. Hallin.
Hallin felt he needed something more supple—and truthful—than calcified notions
like objectivity and “opinions are confined to the editorial page.” So he came
up with this diagram.
Let’s look more carefully at his three regions.