The media has always filtered and distorted information. Newspapers, magazines, television, radio, cable news, news sites, social media, have never been impartial observers and reporters of all that’s happening locally and in the world. But something seems to have shifted in the last few years. What’s different about the media today?
If we understand the media’s role in how we receive information and perceive the world, and if we can teach the next generation, maybe we can make better decisions and we don’t have to be so angry and so despondent about the future.
The following branches from the article News in the Age of Abundance, by David Perell. There’s more to the article than what is contained here.
To understand how and why the media conveys news, follow the money. Marketing and advertising drive media and social platforms. The nature of advertising has changed over the last two decades, from brand advertising to performance advertising, and that changes the way media creates news coverage and the way we see news.
Brand advertising is designed to promote a product or service (brand) to people who may not care and who are mostly unlikely to be in the market to buy right now. If you are mass advertising (using traditional media), you have little control of whom you reach, most of the audience is not interested in your message, so the role of advertising is getting the brand in their heads so that when they are ready to buy, the brand is what comes to mind. You may not be thirsty right now, but when you are, what soda brands pop into your mind?
Performance advertising is reaching people who are already in the researching or buying process and bringing them to the next step in the buying cycle. If you are interested in looking at restaurants, there is a pretty good chance you are interested in making a reservation somewhere. Effective performance advertising became possible due to personalized advertising techniques based on large-scale data collection.
The change in advertising triggered a change in media. Reporters and entertainers used to focus on improving their craft. Now the key skill (in terms of employability and pay) is their ability to attract, keep, and grow a loyal audience of potential customers. Research and objectivity are less valued than finding and keeping sponsors and having an engaged audience. Research shows audiences are mostly engaged through memorable headlines and memes.
How do media and reporters use headlines and memes to attract viewers?
Bertrand Russel defined Russell Conjugations in 1948, showing how changing just one synonym can make sentences that were factually equivalent evoke strikingly different emotional reactions. Many words have a factual meaning and an emotional effect. Writers can change the entire meaning of a sentence by replacing a key word with a synonym that has the opposite connotation. For example:
- I am firm
- You are obstinate
- They are pigheaded
Most of us regard the first examples positively, the second one neutrally or slightly negatively, and strongly negatively on the third example. The same below:
- Based on new evidence, I have revised my conclusion.
- You changed your mind.
- They are flipflopping.
- He has gone back on his word.
It’s admirable for Alan Dershowitz to revise his conclusion based on new evidence. It may or may not be okay for him to change his mind. But for him to flip flop or go back on his word merely to support a paying client? Unforgivable! Definitionally, all four sentences are equivalent, but the reporter can attract and appeal to different audiences, evoking different responses by changing just a few words.
Many people support undocumented workers who are providing needed services while trying to provide for their family, but are against illegal aliens taking jobs and using resources that rightfully belong to Americans.
The changing nature of media rewards the more extreme forms, as they are more likely to spread and attract more eyeballs. We see that both in what attracts our attention and in the way information spreads.
The ease with which we can choose our information sources reinforces polarization.
The wide choices in media, especially seen in television, have meant people have more chance to select news that they agree with. The result is that media has become more polarizing and also more focused on entertainment than information. When people choose media that aligns with their beliefs, they are nudged further away from information sources that offer other points of view, and they then harden those differences to negative emotions which then draw those people back to reinforce those differences. It’s an escalating cycle.
As David Perell notes in the article, “People who read the Gettysburg Address when it was written focused on the texture of Lincoln’s prose, not the fashion of his top-hat.” Today, we spend more time getting riled up about the optics of Nancy Pelosi ripping up the State of the Union or Rush Limbaugh getting a medal during the State of the Union than on the content of the speech. The drive for media to engage means that form rises above content, glamor over truth, and emotion over rationality. Today’s political leaders understand the reality of rallying their audience with snappy slogans and emotion-filled speeches, just as today’s information sources and media rely on sensational stories and click-bait headlines to grow audiences for their advertisers.
The media, and media news, engages viewers by entertaining them, and when the information being conveyed isn’t entertaining or provoking enough, media needs to spice it up. News can be spiced up through pseudo-events (like awards shows or annual celebrations), adding color to existing stories (for example, using Russell Conjugations), or emphasizing false urgency (the Democrats are going to take away your guns, or the Republicans are going to take away your healthcare and social security).
Media companies (including the platforms) survive and grow by their ability to attract advertising dollars, which depend on large numbers of viewers. Attracting viewers is often a process of gaming media algorithms, composing misleading headlines, and spinning stories
If the most read content is polarizing or emotionally jarring, over time what does that do to carefully constructed accurate reporting? Low quality content tends to drive out high quality content.
Celebrities (or politicians) capitalize on this trend by “publishing daily distractions under the glitzy guise of informing the public.” News of declining world poverty rates or improving global health aren’t entertaining, they do not attract views, but linking the latest storm to earth threating global warning can fire up high engagement. Stories about the 725,000 people who die annually from mosquitoes are less engaging than a cataclysmic story about one of the 10 people killed by sharks each year. Homicide and terrorism account for less than one percent of American deaths each year, yet those are the stories that attract readers, not stories on cancer or heart disease, which together account for greater than 50% of deaths.
What can we do as consumers (or as teachers)?
We, and our students, have the power to choose what information we follow and the respect we give that information. We can focus our efforts and act on the things we can control. We can make a difference by taking action on often local issues instead of harping on national or global ones where we can, at best, rail to audiences who are already inclined to agree.
Just as the healthiest people control their diet and restrict their intake of empty calories, we can put effort into our information health. We can restrict our intake of the dramatic that is automatically served up by media, seek our own trusted curators, and vary points of view to see an issue from multiple vantage points.
As Perell concludes:
On the Internet, your rate of learning is limited not by access to information, but by the discipline to ignore distractions. The people you follow online is a leading indicator for your success, your health, and your happiness. Follow the right people, drink their recommendations deeply, and ditch the sugary cereal.