What Is 'Mainstream Media'?

[ABM]

Does it include cable networks?

I've actually heard the term, 'liberal mainstream media', but haven't quite deciphered what that stems from.

Thanks.

 

[julius]

Does it include cable networks?

I've actually heard the term, 'liberal mainstream media', but haven't quite deciphered what that stems from.

Thanks.

I think the "mainstream media" is whoever the other side thinks it is. So conservatives think it's liberals who "run" mainstream, and liberals think it's conservatives.

 

[Buzz Killington]

Mainly newspapers, esp. The New York Times.

 

[Colonel Ronan]

I feel like it is subjective.

For me, it's CNN, Fox, Washington Post...

 

[The Sebastian Express]

Anything national, big tv news networks, Time Magazine, People, etc. Statewide it's the biggest paper in the state IMO.

 

[Fez Hammersticks]

Anything beyond 'local' stuff.

 

[maxiep]

It's more of a mindset than anything else. Same schools, same cities, same social circles. It's a feedback loop. They tend to look at the world the same way. You could really see it in DC. Hundreds of different news outlets had bureaus in Washington and those different outlets all report the news the same way.

 

[jlprk]

Mainstream = inoffensive. See this board? People arguing. See the mainstream media news? Everyone...thinks..the same...<yawn>

 

[THE HCP]

COURTSIDE!

 

[Minstrel]

Like anything "mainstream," it's what the majority of the population is aware of and uses. You can argue over what falls into that category but, for example, the CBS/NBC/ABC networks are clearly mainstream while Daily Kos or Red State clearly are not.

Then, of course, we can decide what "media" counts. Is it just news, or is music and film part of "media?" Technically it is, but people usually refer to "media" as entities informing people's world views and knowledge of the world. But then, people can and do argue that music and movies do that, too.

Ultimately, I think the lines are being blurred as a greater and greater percentage of the population starts understanding how to use the Internet. Blogs and independent news sites are becoming more and more a part of the discourse and meme-circulation. Newspapers are becoming less so unless they move away from focusing on print editions and more to Internet editions, with blog-like features. YouTube, which used to be entirely frivolous, is becoming more of a force to allow people to express world views. I'd say, for example, that any specific YouTube video is unlikely to be "mainstream," but YouTube as a whole is probably pretty close.