The media, and by media I’m
referring to the delivery of news in print, radio and television, has changed
dramatically over the last 40+ years. I believe the media is a reflection of
our society and the overriding purpose of any business in a competitive economy
is to make money, to show a profit, to enrich the owners, shareholders and to
the extent that it benefits those two groups, the employees of the business.
As much as we can sing the praises
of media for informing us, educating us, and entertaining us, all of those
things are provided in order to make a profit. Without that profit individual
businesses or entire modes of media cease to exist, outside of museums. Remember slide strips in elementary school?
How does media do this? How does it
gain our attention and hold it in order to advertise to us and cause us to buy
things? Let’s consider streaming services, television, and radio, since that is where the majority
of folks get their news today.
When the first two forms of media
began, the novelty of having information provided over the airways by voice and
then later by picture and voice was of great interest to many people. This
interest created an easy audience for sponsors to advertise to. Social
psychology very quickly began to study the reaction of the listeners and viewers
(potential consumers) to various forms of advertising and to various types of
entertainment provided by the media. (Yes, dear friends, the news is
entertainment, and it is profit driven.) Ferenc Mate in his book, A Reasonable Life, said that unleashing
television on an unsuspecting North American public was tantamount to carpet
bombing the entire continent with valium. So are we just gullible or are we
victims of very clever, very well planned campaigns to turn us into over
consuming two legged locusts, destroying the world that hosts us in order to
satisfy cravings created by media based advertising?
That is a question I ponder daily.
So what happened to make the news
less reliable and in some cases more biased? We humans seem to have a need to
find more, newer and different stimulation frequently. The old adds become
commonplace and loose their power to captivate and stimulate. This occurs to
one degree or another in all aspects of our lives from education, to politics,
sex, food, and especially in the realm of entertainment. The typical horror
movie of the 1950’s seems rather dull when compared to the modern version with
all its bells and whistles added.
As people began to use computers, not just for work, but for entertainment, another type of media instantly began to move across peoples' screens. News services large and small, some just blantantly bias advertising for both conservative and liberal causes.
The news has always been subject to
bias depending on the accuracy of the information, the interest and motivations
of the reporter and the purpose of the sponsors.
Despite this drift toward bias,
sometimes unintentional, sometimes calculated, the ever increasing competition
for our attention has altered the news so as to make a careful observer rightfully
suspicious of many news broadcasts. The need to gain and hold our attention is the
dominant factor in news broadcasting.
When regular news stories are no
longer enough to hold our focus, the stories are dressed up. They are
sensationalized, humorized, made titillating, shortened, expounded upon, even
altered. Media appeals to our emotions, our fears, our hopes, our frustrations,
our desire to blame others when the world isn’t as we’d like it, and our desire
to be entertained. We are told what we want to hear, often with a subtle twist
that over time changes our perception of what is real and what is fiction, or
what is acceptable and what isn’t. When we hear something that makes us uncomfortable, or that we don't believe we can find a ready source of counter information, happy to have our attention and expose us to their advertising. Truth has become the casualty of the contest for our focus.
Almost from the moment we are born
we are bombarded with advertising for everything from fast food, to cleaning
products, cars, toys, home improvements, medicine, and vacation spots. We
become desensitized to this bombardment very quickly; so advertisers must come
up with different, more extreme, or more appealing ways to gain and hold our
attention. Just like any other program on the radio or, computer or television, the news must
engage in these tactics in order to survive, to make a profit.
Conservative news sources, or those
sponsored by conservative leaning advertisers, sprinkle their news stories with
facts gathered to support their views and hold our attention in order to sell
their advertisers’ goods.
Liberal news sources, or those
sponsored by liberal leaning advertisers, sprinkle their news stories with facts
gathered to support their views and hold our attention in order to sell their
advertisers’ goods.
Some news outlets do a much better job of being non-biased than do most. These are becoming harder to find and hold less appeal for the masses
Instead of calmly discussing
information and weighing its implications news commentators and their expert
guests engage in hyperbole. They argue. They yell. They talk over each other.
They distort facts. They give alternative facts. They even lie, often and over and
over again.
Why are things this way?
Because we will watch
and listen to them. We find a grain of truth that appeals to our emotions and
we end up swallowing the entire message because it is entertaining and we’ve
become so desensitized to all the hoopla that we don’t have an opinion of our
own. Often our core values become the values of those attempting to attract us
to their show in order to sell us their sponsors’ products. This is done so
insidiously, so frequently and over such a long period of time that we may not
even realize how we’ve changed, because our emotions begin to convince us that
only those facts that reinforce our feelings are the right ones.
So how do we escape this vicious
cycle of enslavement to the over consuming society. Daniel Quinn, in his novel,
Ishmael, puts forth the idea that we can’t escape. He
says we must participate or perish. I understand that argument, but I can’t use
it to condone the sins of a way of life run amok.
Daily I must remind myself of what
I believe to be true. I must ask myself what is good, what is honest, what is
best for all people, not just for me and mine. I look at religion, not the distorted self-promoting version of so many modern churches, and
try to weigh my life’s choices based on the ideas of serving others and
ensuring that my choices do not damage the options of others. Of course I often
fail. I am a product of this crazy North American culture of consumption and no matter how
much I wish things were different I can only change a small bit of that
culture. But I will keep trying. As long as I live I will seek to share
goodness and mercy with all those around me.
Thanks for reading my thoughts.
This was a first draft, a stream of consciousness writing; so I’m sure there
are flaws and errors. It’s just my ramblings this morning.
Peace,
Bob
Oh, here is a link to a source that rates news outlets as to
their political neutrality. I was surprised by some of these selections, not so
much by others. Make of it what you will.
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