How To Understand the News
by Earl Dunovant
Once upon a time, all we needed to know we could learn from what we directly experienced. But no more. Now things that happen half way around the planet can directly impact us. And since we have no way (and in most cases, no desire) to directly experience all that impacts our lives, we have come to depend on the news media more than we ever have in our history… the town crier is the TV and you can't really afford to ignore him.
The news media, however, is an integral part of American society, and as such has certain typically American characteristics… primary of which is that it's intended to make money for someone. And as you know, the news media doesn't directly make money on your paltry couple of bucks at the newsstand, or even your subscription. It's the advertisements that make publishing magazines and newspapers, and broadcast journalism, profitable. Therefore, marketing is also intimately involved in the news media, in that the stories chosen and the spin chosen for them are supposed to maximize drawing power in order to showcase the products being sold by the advertisers.
Since advertisers sell products that are suitable for some but not for others, they like to advertise in places that are seen by those their product is suitable for and don't care at all if it is never seen by those for whom it is not suitable. They will pay more for an ad that reaches 100,000 people of which 80% are prospects than for an ad that reaches 200,000 people, 25% of which are prospects. The advertiser doesn't see it as 100,000 vs. 200,000, but as 80,000 vs. 50,000. As businessmen, the media moguls want to make the most money for the least expenditure. That's why newspapers select a spin and maintain it in the face of all fact. They feel the spin is appealing to some market segment, which will allow them to charge higher ad rates to advertisers marketing to that segment. This is the reason for specialty magazines with different flavors as well. Each tries to zero in most precisely on the mix that will either draw the greatest number of people or lock in a permanently loyal cadre of consumers.
I've gone into some detail here, because in order to use the media to find out the state of affairs you must remember that every newspaper, wire service, radio station, TV network, is a business. You cannot think of them as neutral providers of information when their reports can exacerbate or dampen certain situations. They can't be so foolish as to not notice their impact, and I don't want to think they are evil enough to actively seek such an impact. They must simply feel that what they're doing is more important than understanding, and the whole truth. Therefore the first thing you must understand is that there are no unbiased views in the news media.
Editorials are a special case. They are designed to shape people's thinking, convince them, on some topic. There are magazines which are entirely editorials… the Nation, the National Review, Commentary, such as that. When reading them, keep in mind that when people make a statement, a report or an assertion, there's very little you can be sure of in it. They may be telling the truth, or not (did you ever have the experience where someone thought they were lying to you, but what they said turned out to be true?). They may know the whole situation, or not. You may truly understand what they are saying, or you may not. Through all this, there is one bit of certainty in any assertion: the person speaking/writing wants the person listening/reading to believe the assertion. Always keep in mind the goal of an editorial is not to inform, but to convince.
Next you must understand the people the news is being reported to. Know who the target market of the story is because that will determine the probable spin. More, you'll know that, as of the presentation of the story under consideration, a significant percentage of the target population believes the story to be true.
That is one fact the media can't avoid providing.
Posted by P6 at April 6, 2004 10:12 AM
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Comments
> You cannot think of them as neutral providers of information
But the reader can at least try to distinguish between fact and packaging. If a newspaper writes about a "horrible murder", I just read "murder". I'm quite capable of managing my own emotions, thank you very much. I'm not paying the newspaper to tell me how I should feel.
Posted by dof at April 6, 2004 10:53 AMYou can distinguish, yes. But you have to be aware of the need to do so.
Posted by P6 at April 6, 2004 11:54 PM