Ambient music is music that rewards attention but does not demand it. In fanciful moments I have wondered whether there is such a thing as ambient prose. I think there is. For no good reason I have been watching people read on the bus to work (carefully, mind you), in particular the speed with which they get through a magazine or newspaper. Not long ago I saw a man get from the front to the back of the Metro in (by my reckoning) under two minutes.
This is a function of mass literacy combined with a lack of an outlet for it. The printed word is a hot medium, requiring attention and patience, encouraging detached and sequential logic. This clearly does not mesh with the reality of life for half-sleeply Londoners on their way to work. There is a problem if newspapers are experienced not as a collection of stories supported by facts but a series of flickering impressions, over in two minutes.
Newspapers were born of bourgeois culture, between the town cryer and the radio station. The medium is shaped by the needs and prejudices of the bourgeoisie (who, amongst other things, have ample time to sit and read). The existence of a socialist newspaper is an example of the working class beginning to master bourgeois culture.
If newspapers cannot fulfil what's considered to be their function, bringing current affairs to the general population, it's time they were replaced (along with the social relations that gave rise to them). Of course that's easier said than done.
