Media, the New Religion

I've always valued the printed word over the Internet's news feeds. Even in case where the same corporation maintains news feed in the Internet and publishes the printed version. Printed versions has always given the impression of more credibility and exactness. The Internet has always felt more like the sales channel and the printed magazine more like the actual product the company's been selling.

Thanks to my areal magazine, I do not have this misconception anymore. Etelä-Pohjanmaa (Epari) in it's number 49 pointed out to me that if the publisher isn't committed but only to entertainment, it makes no difference what version of it's magazine you are reading. 2010, this year, the magazine claimed that the difference between normal pork meat and organic pork meat is that the organic hasn't been fed with extra vitamins. Of course the company can claim that this wasn't meant to be news; it was just an imaginary interview with pork. But this is not helping, should I value more companies and journalists that get interviews only from their imaginary friends?

Well, you might ask what's the big deal of a little joke? But what concerns me is that in the western parts of Finland there's a lots of people who believe this lobbying of domestic corporates. Here actually lives people who don't know what organic food is or how it differs from regular. I've always thought that journalism's function has been to inform people, not mislead them. Nowadays the media corporates seem like the substitutes of religions. They choose sides, truths and adapt their news fitting the frame chosen as if competing of certain type of people. Thus forgetting the role of informant and becoming more like the supporters of chosen attitudes. Thanks to Ilkka Yhtymä, I no longer have the respect for the printed word either.