Infotainment

[Nym90]

..

Agree is liberal, disagree is conservative.

[??????????]

Strongly Agree.

[Alcon]

Strongly agree.

[TheCommentator]

Strongly agree.

[The Duke]

Agree

[Platypus]

agree.

[Gustaf]

Strongly agree/agree, voted strongly here, but usually takes agree I think.

[Huckleberry Finn]

I guess I agree.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Strongly disagree.

[Nation]

Strongly agree -- just look at the major news channels.

[badnarikin04]

STRONGLY, STRONGLY AGREE!

As you know, I think that cable news has secretly become state run and designed to brainwash the public.

[??????????]

MTV is disgusting.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

It appears I'm the only one that disagrees

[WMS]

Strongly Agree - and it's getting worse.

[Mikem]

Strongly Agree, as stated MTV is horrible.  I locked it out of my tv so i dont accidently catch a glimpse of their insane wanna be politics.  I did this after seeing a commercial about the possibility of the draft if you didn't vote for the right candidate.  Sickening.  So-called political debate shows arn't much better either.

[Nym90]

It appears I'm the only one that disagrees

And the funny thing is, disagree is considered conservative, agree is considered liberal.

One may wonder why...my read on this is that if you disagree, you are saying that people should take responsibility for their own lack of attention span, and not blame it on corporations (in this case, the media). You would be arguing that the free market should prevail, and the media should put out anything they want and not feel any responsibility to educate people if they don't want to be educated.

Agreeing is saying that the media is to blame, not individuals, and should alter their content even if it means they will have to make less profit. Hence that would be a more liberal stance.

[12th Doctor]

..

Agree is liberal, disagree is conservative.

I agree.

I'm don;t think you are right about that Eric.  This is definatly an "authoritarian/libertarian" question.

[Nym90]

..

Agree is liberal, disagree is conservative.

I agree.

I'm don;t think you are right about that Eric.  This is definatly an "authoritarian/libertarian" question.

Well, on the political compass, an Agree answer increases your liberal score (I deliberately tried to get a "perfect" score so that I would know how each question affects your score.)

I agree that it could be interpreted differently, but the rationale I gave makes sense when you think about it in terms of economics. The way it is worded, it is asking you if the media is responsible for shrinking attention spans, in which case they should feel some responsibilty (or perhaps government should) to regulate their conduct rather than allow the free market to reign supreme.

A strict free market capitalist would say that it isn't a worrying contribution, that it would be more worrying to restrict the free market and attempt to force the media to show programming other than what gets the absolute highest possible ratings. If "infotainment" gets higher ratings than traditional news shows, one could argue that the media should simply give people what they want and not feel any responsiblity to attempt to change culture for the better.

I agree that the question could be considered socially, too, but I know that from my experimentation, an agree answer makes you more liberal economically. I don't necessarily agree that this should be considered an economic question rather than a social one, as in practice, regulation of the media is usually considered to be more of a social issue, with conservatives supporting more restrictions and liberals less. However, it can be thought of economically too, in which case we would expect opposite postions. Depends on how much you view the media as a business as opposed to an influence on culture and morals.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The reason I disagree is because most of that stuff on MTV and The Daily Show and all makes it much easier to win over the masses. Look at Campaign 2004 for how effective the lies about the draft have been. If it can bring the ignorant masses to my side, I'm all for it.