So this email exchange is taking place right now and I thought I'd blog about it as I'm sure many of you may be thinking/struggling with the same meaning of social media as a news outlet today. Please leave your thoughts and comments here I'd like to hear your approaches to conversations like this.  The following exchange is happening now with a family member who uses cable news as a major part of his news. It began with my thinking of him while reading Seth Godin's critique of cable news.

Me: I thought of you and had to pass this critique of cable news channels. I agree with a lot of the notions here. Him: Same could be said of the Congress and the administration. He is guilty of the same things just by writing this blog.

Here is my reply to that last reply:

I agree to a point. But I can't truly contact Congress, CNN, etc. directly enough and in a timely and sufficient manner that might be necessary for my real understanding. I'm not against mainstream media, it serves a purpose for keeping me (among other demographics) up-to-date, but so does Google News (check it out, it's rich), Twitter (for reasons other than "what others are doing"), Facebook (for shared news from friends and family), Google Reader (where I can subscribe to ideas, news and people of interest) among other avenues to those generating news. I think the difference is that readers and writers can directly interact, in a more timely and sufficient manner, with Godin and others interested in the topic through comments on his site, their own online writing, videos and more.  Granted that while most are not experts, the collective conversation (through a variety of online and offline resources) can lead to a better understanding of the news topic at hand. I'll also say that the opposite can be true as well. What I'm getting at is that if I want to dive deeper and really wrestle with a news topic, it's necessary that I take in multiple perspectives to construct my own understanding.  Cable news channels have budgets to meet, revenue to generate and investors with deep pockets to please and that is a formula that is dangerous for open information and communication. This isn't meant to be an argument at all, but a window into my thoughts.  It's such an interesting time to live in right now. It's interesting to think about how much I've learn and grown professionally over the past 4.5 years through a combination of social and mainstream media. I think a mix of both is what I'm getting at. I tend to be heavier on the social media side because I can subscribe to it and read it anytime, anywhere. In addition a lot my work has been social media-based. In the end, it just might be that I really dislike commercials.

Let's see what transpires...