Audience Fragmentation

The market place of ideas is that no matter what your ideals may be, there is some sort of media that suits your beliefs whether they be religious or political. A right wing conservative can take solace knowing that Glenn Beck is still on the air while a left wing liberal can be upset that Keith Olbermen is now off of MSNBC. The point is that no matter which set of beliefs one may have, there is something out in the world of media for everyone.

The market place of ideas is what makes the United States a truly great country and it ultimately compliments the first amendment which allows for the freedom of speech and for freedom of the press. The market place of ideas also realizes that by having certain ideals that they will be able to make a lot of money off of conservative or liberal values. Fox News reports on the conservative take of the news and appeal particularly to conservative viewers. On the other hand, MSNBC reports on the liberal take on the news.

As someone who watches the big three (FOX,CNN, and MSNBC) I can see how these programs split people apart and make it hard to discuss news with someone who may have different political ideas than yourself. Although the market place of is a great concept, it does divide the country in half. People are able to get along with one and other fine until politics come up and then the conversation turns to something like this:

“Well I heard on Fox…”
“Fox is crap, on MSNBC, they said…”
“MSNBC is crap!”

And the conversation will carry on to something like that. There are few popular programs that will show the news without bias and without having someone comment on it so the big news stations push their ideas and advertising on the people who watch their shows. Because of audience segmentation, we as a people are a united nation spilt by competing television channels who when it comes to be election time have lost all civility when we discuss the issues.