The article written by Robert Kaiser former editor of The Washington Post for nearly the last half century is an incredibly intelligent insight into the effects that the digital revolution has had on our culture of freedom in America. Many parallels can be drawn from the information provided by Kaiser regarding the decimation of old ‘legacy’ companies (The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the vast number of consolidated record companies) by new tech giants that have come to rule the world (Apple, Google, Facebook). With the digital revolution the carpet has been pulled out from under companies that have been vital to fueling culture at it’s core. These businesses had models that relied on consumers paying money for the content they had received and charging companies for advertising placement, this is however no longer a legitimate business model since distribution of content is essentially free and there is no more product for these companies to rely upon.

It’s scary to compare the decimation of the news industry with the paralleled failure of the music industry. Equally trying to find solutions to these problems is not quite a walk in the park. The corporatization of these industries and the failure of these companies to generate income has only increased how much needs to be rebuilt or reorganized in order for our culture to breathe the fresh air provided by legitimate news outlets or genuine record companies willing to represent the music of the time. Already the cultural stress of these failures has made it’s way into regular word of mouth conversation by those members of the millennial generation who want to build the world to be a better place, however I feel many of these individuals feel that changing the course of our society is too great of a challenge because of the fact that social networking is really networking in isolation (your glued to your laptop in your pajamas watching the world go by/you only see people’s good days, no one has ever said “check out my strep throat isn’t this cool on Facebook and not been immediately shunned for sharing this). 

Start up companies have explored the viability of recreating what has been lost. Creating the dialogue that directs young people to be more encouraged to have a voice and speak up about the problems we face is the only way we can make a change, however short of massive protest (which Citizens United proves does very little to actually change things, the student led democratic protests in Hong Kong is another example of how this approach will create change) there needs to be a smarter approach. With the income gap as great as it has become however many young members of this generation are stuck with ‘do it yourself’ solutions to these problems. Just like startup news outlets that are trying to report the gap of information between local, national, and international news, young musicians are trying to fill in the gap between being a nobody local musician with zero dollars in your pocket and someone who actually has a voice and a following. Many of the musicians today who do have following however have already sold out their artistic freedom to make music that can acquire mega corporation sponsorship campaigns. Before these massive companies decided to sponsor musicians the musical message of the day was much more relatable with a screw it attitude that I am going to make music the way I want to, Rock and Roll felt good because of it’s foundation was built upon sexing up your lover in the back of your parents car because it made them angry and you were going to work hard and get the things you wanted because your the only person who can change your life so deal with it and get down to the basics. EDM/Hip Hop/Music of Today has never made anybody do anything great besides kill themselves with drugs at the concert they just attended, talk about the wrong message to be conveying to your audience, take drugs till you blackout and forget your life is one big problem. 

The reality of what is being lost is the fabric of our culture and our ability to relate with one another and feel empathy towards other humans in the world (a new school shooting every week), this should be shocking and is something that needs to change. If there are enough smart individuals willing to take risk, make no money at first, and say the things that are on their mind in an intelligent way that is solution focused then we will be able to fix some of these problems. We have to take a step back from our instant gratification culture and realize if we want things to change in real life then we will have to put in some hard work and hold those responsible for creating our cookie cutter society we have today that has destroyed a lot of peoples sense of self worth. Waking up and realizing that way less than one percent of the population has fixed the game against the masses and demanding that large corporations those masses have helped create be part of the solution by giving back is our only way out of this hole we have dug. Inspiring young people to get involved with government and do the foot work necessary to bring these changes about is just the first step. 

Article: 

Kaiser, Robert G. "The Bad News About the News." The Brookings Institution. N.p., 16 Oct. 2014. Web. 26 Oct. 2014.