In my humble opinion I don’t see the news media really caring what we think.
The news media people do opinion polls and tell us what we think and then they turn right around and lead us on what to think using inflammatory news titles, especially online. Sometimes using scrolls that never make it to the news desk leaving you to do a search for what the scroll was about.
Personally I suspect all polls as being biased and prejudiced to the news directors views.
Who do they ask these questions of or should I say where do they ask their poll questions? This is one big country and we don’t all think the same, especially rural and big city people don’t always see things the same way.
I know they have to sell advertising and use sensationalism to lead you to view or click on the news items, but I’m starting to get more than leery of what they offer the viewing public.
Of course they care what people think! They want to show whatever side people are interested in, and show more of it, and get more people to watch/listen/read.
If people didn’t click on crazy sensational stories of little merit, they wouldn’t be linked. But people totally do, and that’s all news is.
Bingo! In fact, I would go so far as to say that the news media (in general) cares ONLY about what the general publics thinks and nothing about news. News by itself doesn’t sell advertising, the number of eyeballs looking at their stories sells ads.
Claverhouse: They’d love to have that kind of power. They don’t have that kind of power, and they know it.
They proceed by experiment. They tell us “A” and if we react well, we get a lot more “A.” They tell us “B” and we just laugh; you won’t see any more “B” news features.
We tell them what we want to hear, via our feedback, and they do their best to satisfy us.
I remember one tv station that broke away from gavel-to-gavel coverage of the O.J. Simpson murder trial. Their ratings plummeted. They went right back to full coverage. The fault is in ourselves.
February, May and November are traditionally “sweeps” months when the TV ratings are gathered. The media then does their “investigative” reporting, promotes the stories heavily, just so the viewership artificially rises. In turn that generates higher ratings so the media can then demand higher ad revenue rates until the next rating period. The rest of the months we endure our standard fair of mediocre reporting.
The media “reports” what generates ratings (revenue) for them, and little else. As long as a station stays within the requirements of their FCC license, they do sqat little when it comes to reporting news and information that actually has substance for viewers. With the rise of social media, quite a bit of corporate media is running “scared.” That’s because these pseudo reporters in social media are actually digging into stories, reporting real news, uncovering what is really happening, and yes, swaying opinions.
The fear they generate from hurricane to tornado’s to wind storms to snow vortex’s keeps people coming back for more news and on the constant news channels like CNN, but not limited to them they are always drumming up something for you to stay past the commercials.
I know they can’t go back to the 50’s or 60’s with just straight forward news. The die has been set the news media progression of today works.
What got me to thinking is this ISIS fear, which I too believe is real, but it sure is reminiscent of the days of worrying about the Republican Guard troops of Saddam Hussein that the news media beat the drums about back then.
Plus one more complaint that isn’t really the news media’s fault … it seems that the first news you get is only the beginning of the truth that is yet to come. Why pay attention to all of the details on the first news report when they seem to change quickly as more light is shed on the matter?
In my case, it’s why I stopped getting weather info from local TV news long ago.
The stations like generating scare headlines and overhyping the weather, so you’ll tune in to their SuperLiveDopplerColor Radar and hear breathless accounts of doom concerning events that have been happening for thousands of years without decimating the human race.
There’s something to be said for reading forecasts from NOAA/NWS online. Not necessarily more accurate, but much calmer.
**Do you think the news media (online/on the air) really care what people think? **
Yes, I do, but only from a marketing perspective. Whatever popular opinions are current will result in more viewers, clicks, whatever, so they do try to determine what will sell to the market. That is why the evening news on the TV is almost exclusively drug ads targeted for older people, because that is who watches the evening news on TV.
If criticism of a current policy or event is popular, then that event or policy will be widely reported on and milked to death. If attacking the event or policy will be against popular opinion then it will not be reported on much.
Woodward and Bernstein style investigative reporting, digging into the facts of minor incidents that might lead to a big reveal, is simply not done anymore. It is all about the click-through count, the easily bored news consumer, and the need to feed the 24/7 hour news cycle.
It is sad. The news has become just another consumable product for the ignorant masses. Manufactured and spoon fed by pretty talking heads. Every day we are told what we should be concerned about today. 5 things you should know today. And it is the same for all news outlets. One might think that NBC or ABC or CNN would be working on different news items each day. But, no, you only get the very same news on every outlet be it paper or internet. Every story is what will sell today.
So of course they want to know what we think, what we will pause to listen to, what we will buy, what advertisers should be used for each news item. That is the whole business model now.
And in a certain sense, what you think, what you have been told to think about and what you should be concerned about today, is a manufactured product made for your consumption.
Hell, after years of lurking on this board, I’m beginning to think that half of the Fox News audience consists of people who watch it so they’ll have something to post about on this board and feel smugly superior to the other half of the audience.
Seriously, if it’s that bad, why do you watch it? The Fox network doesn’t care what you think about its news, as long as you watch it.
Many years ago we used to watch ABC news with Peter Jennings. One night he started the show with a poll that said that a huge percentage of people thought the Monica Lewinsky thing was of no importance and wished the media would stop talking about it. He then spent the next 20 minutes covering the Monica Lewinsky thing.
We stopped watching the news soon after that.
No, they don’t pay attention at all. Editors have egos and that’s all that matters.
