Barry Schwartz's argument that too much choice can be detrimental to an overall process is a valid one. But in my opinion this fine line as it relates to the dissemination of news has not yet been crossed. Everyday the internet provides us with new ways to filter our news and find the news we want the most.
One statement Schwartz made that i disagree with was
"The problem is when people start to get around them; there are hundreds of thousands of blogs. Now, the question is which ones do you actually look at? What kind of audiences do these blogs have? How trustworthy are the arguments and the empirical claims? You’re on your own."
It seems very clear me that there are hundreds of popular websites devoted to aggregating, organizing and disseminating the information on the internet. These filters help take the overwhelming amount of information online and make it digestible for the end user.
Filters like Digg, Stumbleupon, and OhMyNews are powerful ways for people to find the news that they want. In this model, the people themselves are the filter, and like minded people comment and discuss articles, images and videos that interest them.
So quite literally, the user is not on their own.
This video explains how RSS as a filter can take care of the problem of organizing the overwhelming information on the web.
Additionally, mainstream television news has so far survived survived and been improved by the competition of the myriad of online choices. This is probably because most people still find a place for the evening news in their day, whether out of tradition or for aesthetic reasons. This means that even though there are hundreds of thousands of sources for news, traditional venues are still respected by news consumers.
I don't think that Schwartz's warnings are without merit, there is definitely a risk that having too many sources of news could eventually lead to lower quality of news delivery, but as long as filters continue to evolve along with methods of dissemination, that line won't have to be crossed.
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