{"id":9464,"date":"2017-06-11T22:48:07","date_gmt":"2017-06-11T22:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/socialcoldstreams.wordpress.com\/?p=3069"},"modified":"2017-06-11T22:48:07","modified_gmt":"2017-06-11T22:48:07","slug":"media-priorities-driven-by-conflict-and-ratings-clicks-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/2017\/06\/11\/media-priorities-driven-by-conflict-and-ratings-clicks-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Media priorities driven by conflict and ratings (“clicks”)"},"content":{"rendered":"

In media, propaganda and advertising it’s all about “emotional jolts per minute”. The media provides “celebrity-like” coverage of political personalities<\/em> but seldom does serious policy<\/em> reporting. This problem is pervasive in political coverage but even rears up in coverage of health, science, business and technology.<\/p>\n

Personalities, and especially those that generate “emotional jolts per minute”, are the focus of reporting – not serious analysis or policy understanding.<\/p>\n

\u25cfDo news sites give serious, sustained attention to policy issues as well as publishing innumerable hot takes about the personality-driven dust-up of the moment?<\/p>\n

Harvard professor Thomas E. Patterson, the study\u2019s author, sees trouble on that last point.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe press is focusing on personality not substance,<\/strong>\u201d he said recently on public radio\u2019s \u201cOn the Media\u201d program. And that reflects \u201cnot a partisan bias but a journalistic bias,\u201d the tendency to seek out conflict.<\/strong> (No mystery there \u2014 it\u2019s more interesting.)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the press in its usual mode, and that erodes public trust,\u201d Patterson said.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s the dirty little secret that every journalist knows \u2014 Trump stories drive ratings and clicks. The word \u201cTrump\u201d in a headline vastly increases its chances of getting attention.<\/strong> (We\u2019re all guilty; see above.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

WashingtonPost: Is Media coverage of Trump to negative?<\/a><\/p>\n

Since so much of “news” is personality-driven trivia of “he said, she said” and faux outrage quotable quotes, we seldom develop an understanding of the policy or root subject.<\/p>\n

Worse, many believe they have knowledge of a subject because it was reported by a well known media outlet. In reality, most of what we think we know – from the media – is likely superficial at best or incomplete and wrong at worst.<\/p>\n

Within this celebrity gossip reporting milieu propaganda messaging and spin thrive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In media, propaganda and advertising it’s all about “emotional jolts per minute”. The media provides “celebrity-like” coverage of political personalities but seldom does serious policy reporting. This problem is pervasive in political coverage but even rears up in coverage of health, science, business and technology. Personalities, and especially those that generate “emotional jolts per minute”, are the focus of reporting – not serious analysis or policy understanding. \u25cfDo news sites give serious, sustained attention to policy issues as well as…<\/p>\n

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