The new and final season of The Wire (its fifth) is in full swing already (one episode down, nine to go – although you can watch a week early on HBO inDemand so I am two weeks in). Much has been written on the new season (for those who follow the show that is) by now many find criticism for their favorite characters aren’t getting enough face time (tough to squeeze everyone in when they are adding the newsroom characters as well).
Each season of The Wire has had a focus (street level drug dealing, port workers, politics, schools) and this season finishes up looking at the media (David Simon the shows creator worked as a reporter for the Baltimore Sun for a long time). Simon brings plenty of his own experiences and gripes with the paper to the show, but it is an interesting subject to deal with in our day and age where new media such as the internet, blogging and 24 hours news channels are eroding the role (and profitability) of print media and especially daily newspapers. Of course new media are providing all kinds of great additions to the mix, but I feel it is important to look carefully at what is being lost as well as more and more local papers close up shop and editorial voices are lost. I do not believe that inherently professional newspaper voices are more important, better informed or more useful then lay journalists who blog, but there is something to be said that the indepth time and resources that journalists and investigative journalists in particular could devote to a subject and the role they have played in our ‘open’ society.
If you haven’t heard of the Wire, you gotta come out of your cave, its an amazing HBO series essentially about Baltimore and the decline of the American inner city – scene through a complex cast that is never clearly right or wrong, almost everyone is a conflicted character – something that TV just doesn’t seem to attempt on most networks (FX has taken the cue and hypes the fact they deal in similar mixed hues in recent ads).
Filed under: Entertainment, Internet, Media
