Sunday, May 6, 2012

Military Whistleblowers and Digital Audience

Wired.com brings us a story of failures and whistle blowing within the US Airforce's F-22 Raptor program, a story which was aired on 60 Minutes on Sunday, May 6th. 60 minutes undoubtedly reaches many many viewers but not all. There is a large number of people that do not watch or own a television, me being one of those, who get their news on the internet. Wired.com has done the duty of bringing this story to a greatly increased number of viewers who have an interest in Americas military affairs. This includes those who rely on America's military to be strong and just and those who do not. This story serves to illustrate many things,  one of which is a flaw in the worlds most powerful combat aircraft and subsequently a flaw in the worlds most powerful military force. The citizens of America can use this information to criticize the militaries decision in regards to the continuation of a flawed and dangerous program and thus the story may serve to convince the military leaders to rethink their strategic plans and moral justifications. However the story may serve to inform another ideologically based group, one who's focus is on harming the United States and its citizens. This can also be a motivation for the military leaders but in which direction I'm not sure. I guess my only point is that the use of digital media coupled with television has greatly increased the coverage of this possibly sensitive homeland security issue and definitely human rights issue.

1 comment:

  1. You present an interesting argument about the value of sites that repost or aggregate the news, given that the audience share of shows that rely on broadcast attention, such as Sixty Minutes, has continued to diminish with rising patterns of Internet viewership. It might have been interesting to see you develop your argument more when it comes specifically to whistle-blower stories. Hidden camera coverage (as in the case of cruelty to animal in factory farming) has had a powerful effect as a venue for online news.

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