Sarcasm is my love language. This is one of the reasons why sarcastic and satire websites like The Onion capture my attention. After the VMA's on Aug. 25th, the managing editor of CNN, Meredith Artley took to The Onion to defend why CNN's front page story that morning was about a "twerking teenager" and not something about those dying in Syria or the conflict in Egypt.
She took to The Onion and stated blankly, "I want our readers to know this: All you are to us is eyeballs." She's right. Websites thrive off of page views, the higher the page view the more advertisers come flocking to them with their checkbooks out. It's what she likes to call "modern day journalism."
Unfortunately, CNN is not the only news website that functions this way. If the readers, or "eyeballs" as she calls them, keep clicking on pictures of "Miley's crazy performance" then more and more websites are going to post stories about it. Thanks to Twitter, we can see instant trends in communication. If more people are communicating about the craziness at the VMA's, then more articles about it will be published. Unfortunately this leaves real news to be stuck on another page somewhere that no one will read.
It's not always the news websites that are to blame for the lack of vital information that is getting to the public. Most of the time it's the public. After all, the media is a for profit business and they won't benefit financially from posting articles about things that no one is reading about. Low readership means less advertisers, less advertisers means less money. The mass media business is all about returning a profit, which unfortunately leaves the public unaware of certain important events.
I, for one, know little to nothing about what's going on in Syria or Egypt or what our role is in the middle of it all. If I wanted to know more, I'd dig a little bit. But the point is, sometimes, I prefer the media to keep feeding me nonsense articles about celebrities because it takes my mind off of the fact that we are a country and a world at unrest. Everything is not okay nor will it be any time soon. The more I dig, the more scared I get. I'm not saying I don't want to be informed, I just find myself panicking when I am sometimes.
So thank you, Meredith Artley, for publishing the content I wanted to see Monday morning. And for being willing to admit that the underlying point to mass media is not to inform the audience, it's to return a profit. The original intent of the media was to create a platform for politics, but it is far from that now.
Here's the link to The Onion article:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/let-me-explain-why-miley-cyrus-vma-performance-was,33632/?ref=auto
Hi Nikki,
ReplyDeleteGreat post! You are absolutely right in that the internet follows a “flocking” pattern. Wherever the readers are, indeed that is where the advertisers will be, and that is what more articles will be written about (every major website seems to have a “trending now” section; which is funny because that word equates the stories in question with being “popular,” not necessarily informative or important, but “flocking” to what is trending is a sign of our society’s recurring obsession with what is ‘popular’ and the paradoxical escape from information that we are complaining we are not receiving. In this way, we are becoming inactive citizens.
As for your fear about the world’s insecurity, there is no need to have it. In order to overcome the obstacles that arise as humanity tries to progress we have to be made aware of what those obstacles are. Additionally, by being aware of the awful situations of some many unfortunate people around the world, we come to appreciate that much more what we have in our lives. Being aware of what is going on globally rightfully humbles us, or at least it should.
Best,
Plamen
I absolutely agree and I find the Onion a hilarious parody site as well. Just remember though, it is a "Parody" site, which means it isn't always telling the truth. As you probably know, that wasn't an actual interview; Artley never actually said any of that. The Onion was just rightfully slamming CNN. Here is a link with some of the Twitter world responding and joining in on the criticism, and also Artley defending herself: http://www.mediaite.com/online/cnn-editor-responds-to-the-onions-brutal-miley-cyrus-themed-take-down/
ReplyDeleteNikki, I think that this was a very concise and well written summary of the influence and some of the main reasons for the coverage of "soft news". I am beginning to feel somewhat like a broken record on many of my postings for this class; mass media is a business, the consumers have demonstrated they want infotainment rather than current events, and the media responds accordingly as any for profit network would. I too, am quick to point fingers at the major news networks for their lack of substantive content, but you bring up an excellent point by redirecting back to the consumer. Why is everyone so mad that the "new journalists" are giving us what we (as a generalization) want? One of the facts of capitalism is that things don't tend to stick around very long unless they are being consumed. Infotainment, soft news, feel good stories, and scare tactic news pieces have been around for quite some time now. Perhaps there is not difference in the journalists of today at all when compared to the journalists of the past who brought us "true" news? Maybe both sets of journalists simply reported what the people wanted, and it is us that have changed as opposed to the journalists? I don't necessarily agree with everything that I have just stated, but it is important to consider these things from another angle, and I think you did just that.
ReplyDelete