Andrew Sullivan saw blogging as immediate and personal. He, as a blogger, finds it hard not to include his personal thoughts and feelings in his blog. This is due to how immediate blogging is. There is no time for retrospection, only reaction. And this is how Jarvis' "Me sphere" is. The "Me sphere" puts us as the intakers of the news at the epicenter of the news. We are the heart and soul of the news. Now not only are we effected by the news but we affect the news. The news morphes to suit the public, while the public morphes with the news. It is a very symbiotic relationship, one cannot survive without the other.
By placing us in the middle of the press sphere it becomes narcissitic. I think that both Sullivan and Jarvis' see this, but do not find it troubling. We are all narcisstic. I don't know if its inate, or if we've developed it over time but its true. We can't get over ourselves. By involving us in the news process the "new press sphere" feeds our narcissism. It gives us that feeling of power and control that we thrive on. Not only do we thrive on this involvement but we also involve ourselves more by choice. Since we can see and feel the changes we make in the press we begin to be more proactive. To write in to papers and magazines more asking for what we want because at the end of the day any text has to have readers so they will please us.
I have had this experience many times. The more I feel like I effect a situation the more I will become involved in the situation. I will be more willing to exert the energy required if I can see the progress being made. I personally have never had any true interest in changing the press but I do have examples from my life of my shift to proactivism due to the recognition of my influence. For instance I enjoy riding my bike, but i abhor riding a stationary bike. This is simply because on my bike I can see and feel my impact on the environment. I am moving through space, changing my surroundings. On a stationary bike I am just that, stationary. I don't feel the effects of my effort. This is much how the readers of news have come to change the press. The feel their role in the press so we have progressively become more proactive.
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Awesome analogy with the stationary vs. traditional bike. I feel the exact same way, which is why I love riding up the hill in Iroquois park. When I get to the summit and I look out at Indiana and the downtown skyline, I can revel in my accomplishment and take fun pictures of myself at the top to show off to my friends, all the while enjoying the benefits of exercise.
ReplyDeleteI find your point about the possibly-inherent human condition of narcissism to be spot-on and very relevant to the news discussion as a whole. In Ernest Becker's The Denial of Death, a book I'm currently reading, he illustrates, "If you took a blind and dumb organism and gave it self-consciousness and a name, if you made it stand out of nature and know consciously that it was unique, then you would have narcissism. In man, physiochemical identity and the sense of power and activity have become conscious" (2-3). That is a blunt description of how inseparable caring about ourselves, first and foremost, is from our identity. It's not our fault, it's just how things are.
Nevertheless, the result is that we tend to find ourselves most engaged in an issue when our feelings will be recognized by others, to make one's thoughts known in order to satisfy the natural desire to be noticed.
Good discussion here about narcissism and the news. Chris took it into some deep water with Becker and "physiochemical identity," but that's not to say there's anything wrong with deep water. The example that came to my mind was the Google home page customization feature, so that you can choose what news greets you every day through RSS feeds and widgets and such. Personalization is a bit narcissistic, but again, that's not necessarily bad.
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