Dreyfuss campaigns against "shaped news"

OSCAR-WINNER DREYFUSS CAMPAIGNS AGAINST "SHAPED NEWS"
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Astrid Zweynert]
Richard Dreyfuss says an obsession with delivering instantaneous news and images provides too little context for audiences to reflect and understand what is happening in the world. "There is no room to pause, no room to think," Dreyfuss said. "We don't build into our system of thoughts the need to explain, the media doesn't build that into its transmission of knowledge and information." That creates what Dreyfuss calls "shaped news" -- a version of events according to how the mainstream media want audiences to see what happened, and a violation of journalism's core value of objectivity. Citizen journalism is playing a vital part in broadening news coverage, as well as scrutinizing professional journalism, Dreyfuss said. "Information from more than one source is good. I'm totally in favor of it, even if people send propaganda. In the aggregate you can find more truth than in one opinion." But despite an explosion in blogs, people's views of the news is still shaped by what powerful media corporations print, broadcast and put on their Web sites, Dreyfuss said.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=peopleNews&storyID=2...