Working for The man got me realised something. There is no news. Let me elaborate…

Things happen. Nobody is deying that. Hezbollah and Israel are dooking it out, there are accidents happening and politics are live and kicking. However, the way these news travel makes them void of content and newsworthiness.

Let me give you an example. This is called a trickle-down effect and in my opinion is killing the mainstream media.

• Something happens in Lebanon.
• Event A gets covered by the local press (event A).
• Local press report makes it to national press (Event A1).
• National press surrounds the world and gets picked up by global media (Event A2).
• Global media report gets kicked around the world to the national agencies (Event A3).
• National agencies spread it on national media (Event A4).
• National media spreads it on local media (Event A5).
• A news get read.

Guess how long that takes? Several days. Shocking, yet true. If something happens on Saturday, you are lucky to have it by Monday. Not exactly the speed I`d expect.

Blogs aren`t exactly helping out. Check out the Lebanon tag on Technorati. Although there`s a shitload of data, it usually analyses the mass media reports. Only a few blogs actually dare to go out on the frontline and make the reports for themselves. So compared to the 6 steps of the mass media, add another step when the reporter data gets reported on the blogs. And when they do and get an exclusive, the mass media dismisses them as “subjective”. As if they were the pinnacle of objectivity.

So what to do when uniqueness is frowned upon and when “objectivity” derives from one source alone?