Hi Ben,
I was the facilitator of the General Media group so want to set the record straight here. We were not seeking consensus in these discussions. Rather, we were eliciting comments in a round-robin fashion from the group. Participants could agree, disagree, cite a new point or pass. Therefore, opinions expressed in each group belonged to individual people, or a few or several people, but did not necessarily represent the group as a whole. Your comment: "The general media group believed the bias to be left leaning in TV and print" incorrectly represents a group consensus that was neither there nor sought. Several people in the group did express this point of view, but there were at least an equal number of people who did not support this view at all. The folks who saw a left leaning bias expressed their views with conviction and vigor and were, perhaps, heard over the other voices at the table but, by no means, did their views represent a group consensus. Examination of the laptop notes taken at the table will bear this out. If anything, as the neutral facilitator, I was struck by the clear ideological divide at the table. If an open discussion format had been used, we would have ended up in spirited debate. It's clear that there is community interest on this topic. I hope for more community education on the issue, more information gathering from the community, and opportunities for informed debate.
Conversation about: Community discusses role of local media
Hi Ben, I was the facilitator of the General Media group so want to set the record straight here. We were not seeking consensus in these discussions. Rather, we were eliciting comments in a round-robin fashion from the group. Participants could agree, disagree, cite a new point or pass. Therefore, opinions expressed in each group belonged to individual people, or a few or several people, but did not necessarily represent the group as a whole. Your comment: "The general media group believed the bias to be left leaning in TV and print" incorrectly represents a group consensus that was neither there nor sought. Several people in the group did express this point of view, but there were at least an equal number of people who did not support this view at all. The folks who saw a left leaning bias expressed their views with conviction and vigor and were, perhaps, heard over the other voices at the table but, by no means, did their views represent a group consensus. Examination of the laptop notes taken at the table will bear this out. If anything, as the neutral facilitator, I was struck by the clear ideological divide at the table. If an open discussion format had been used, we would have ended up in spirited debate. It's clear that there is community interest on this topic. I hope for more community education on the issue, more information gathering from the community, and opportunities for informed debate.