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Why Does the American Media Get Big Stories Wrong?

theatlantic.com

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Re: Why Does the American Media Get Big Stories Wrong?

#11

Post by kmasters »

I dont think the media "gets it wrong", although they do endemically, I think that media is reflective of ourselves.

If we dont see a threat, we dont react. If we dont see a threat the media wont react to it either.

This can operate in reverse, if we see a threat but the govt tells us its not a threat, the media will try to soothe our anxiety.

Maybe what the media fears is being drowned out by the mill of a thousand voices, none of which have any credibility, and so they follow the "dont throw pearls to swine" rule of not getting in the way and wasting their breath.

In the world of Alex Jones, Rush Limbaugh, Jesse Ventura, Rand Paul, who wants to hear facts?

The "media" as we call it, is adjusting to the ability of our collective digestive tract to consume what they have to say.

And their adjustment is to say screw it. Its just (expletive ommitted)

Re: Why Does the American Media Get Big Stories Wrong?

#13

Post by lazyjones »

I don't know how relevant this is to the american media, but here in small european countries, media corruption is rampant: government agencies (in particular ministries) bribe newspapers and magazines with expensive ads in order to avoid the (rightfully) bad press and possibly investigative journalism.

Re: Why Does the American Media Get Big Stories Wrong?

#14

Post by crimsonzagar »

Media is wrong? No. Perhaps the following lines put it succinctly.

"When you're young, you look at television and think, There's a conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down. But when you get a little older, you realize that's not true. The networks are in business to give people exactly what they want. That's a far more depressing thought. Conspiracy is optimistic! You can shoot the bastards! We can have a revolution! But the networks are really in business to give people what they want. It's the truth." - Steve Jobs

Guess, we have to do away with "when you're young" part now. Internet keeps us young.

Re: Why Does the American Media Get Big Stories Wrong?

#16

Post by RyanMcGreal »

Vivtek wrote: post #12

the American people, who want the media to rally around officials in times of crisis Bah. Speak for yourself, Atlantic Magazine. (Especially during manufactured crises...)

Of course he doesn't mean every single American - he's making a generalization. But kindly note that in the weeks after 9/11, fully three quarters of Americans supported a military engagement against countries that harbored terrorists - even, explicitly, if thousands of innocent civilians of those countries would be killed.

Re: Why Does the American Media Get Big Stories Wrong?

#17

Post by bryanlarsen »

crimsonzagar wrote: post #14

Media is wrong? No. Perhaps the following lines put it succinctly. "When you're young, you look at television and think, There's a conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down. But when you get a little older, you realize that's not true. The networks are in business to give people exactly what they want. That's a far more depressing thought. Conspiracy is optimistic! You can shoot the bastards! We can hav…

You're both right. That's a great explanation for why media is wrong.

But the article is not titled well: the article gives reasons why the media misses many important stories. To oversimplify, not enough resources, and resources in the wrong places. The OP also gives reasons why those resources aren't allocated well, but that overlaps quite well with your Jobs quote.

Re: Why Does the American Media Get Big Stories Wrong?

#18

Post by chalst »

kaoD wrote: post #10
chalst wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the US faces some distinctive problems - in particular, the rest of the world has not seen the same kind of collapse of quality local reporting that lies behind the Bell, CA example he gives.

(citation needed) Reporting is awful everywhere and at any scale. Media's job is no longer to spread information, but to create opinion. They're not mass informative media, they're mass propaganda tools. That's why they lack quality: their goal is fulfilled even if their quality as informative media is very low.

> (citation needed)

I can recommend, despite the paywall, Michael Massing's 2009 piece, 'A New Horizon for News' on what happened to the US news business: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2009/sep/24/a-new-h...

As for the situation outside the US, I have close knowledge only of the UK (where there has been a decline in print news, but not comparable), and Germany (which is generally very healthy, not to say I can't complain about it at length). What I hear about print news reporting in France, Italy, and Japan is more positive than negative.

> Media's job is no longer to spread information, but to create opinion.

I think this is oversimplifying and rather cynical. Much TV news is like this, but much print reporting and some for-web reporting (Bloomberg, Reuters) is informational in intent. I don't particularly enjoy reading the New York Times, say, their attempt to render stories in accessible terms tends to rub me up the wrong way, but I admire the scope and ambition of their straight news reporting. And they bring a lot of news to light.

What's the alternative? What would the world be like if we only got the kind of news from Fox News and weblogs, and nothing from news teams like those of the NYT.

Re: Why Does the American Media Get Big Stories Wrong?

#19

Post by duedl0r »

crimsonzagar wrote: post #14

Media is wrong? No. Perhaps the following lines put it succinctly. "When you're young, you look at television and think, There's a conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down. But when you get a little older, you realize that's not true. The networks are in business to give people exactly what they want. That's a far more depressing thought. Conspiracy is optimistic! You can shoot the bastards! We can hav…

"We do X, because people want X" is the stupidest argument I've ever heard. The funny thing is, those arguments are always coming from CEOs making X.

How about we were made to like that, because CEOs of X can optimize their profits? But ok, everybody can tell me now that people can make their own choice. In fact, they can't.

IT'S THE TRUTH.

(btw ending a thought with "it's the truth" is yet another incredible stupid thing...oh boy)

Re: Why Does the American Media Get Big Stories Wrong?

#20

Post by mercurial »

lazyjones wrote: post #13

I don't know how relevant this is to the american media, but here in small european countries, media corruption is rampant: government agencies (in particular ministries) bribe newspapers and magazines with expensive ads in order to avoid the (rightfully) bad press and possibly investigative journalism.

I live in a small European country (Denmark) and I'm not aware of this behaviour. Do you have more specifics?
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