Why the News is Never Good News
When you pick up a paper, the main story is always some disaster. Why? Because the news press thinks that this is the news you wish to hear. While a train disaster is certainly news, it is insensitive to plaster it all over every possible news media outlet and drag out the gory details. A short blurb would suffice would it not? List the time and place, the cause, lives lost, any other pertinent details and let it go. The article would be less than a paragraph long and readers would not be subjected to such gratuitously placed imagery on a routine basis.
When the news press receives a story ''off the wire'' it is bare bones information. Generally extremely dry and lacking in color. The journalist's job is to inject that color, add flavor to the story and give it a hook. Showing the human interest side of a story is considered a priority, above and beyond any facts or counterpoints. If someone dies, they will run a feature on the victim, repeating the sordid details at every opportunity and creating a different sensationalist headline each time.
Mass media news outlets rarely carry any news that you can actually use, or educate you on the factual side of current events. Sensationalism always wins out over good old fashioned journalism and the public pays the price. The bigger the disaster, the longer the headlines will stay on the front page and the more people will see your byline.
The sad fact of the case is this: Bad news sells papers. The worse the conditions are in the big bad world, the more people will feel it necessary to learn more about these events. Similar to when a storm hits your area and the Weather Channel hypes it up to be this massive event. The reason they do this is to keep you tuned in to see what happens next. The entire focus of whatever media you are purchasing is in getting the consumer to the point-of-sale, to turn a profit. News has to be paid for, which means advertising must be sold and customers must be sought; Profit is the bottom line.
The news isn't what you think is newsworthy, the news is what the publisher thinks will make you pull out your wallet.
Published by MisterSteve
MisterSteve is a Florida native and spends most of his time being outraged at world political figures. Leaning both extremely left and extremely right on most topics, MisterSteve is conflicted only by logic. View profile
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2 Comments
Post a CommentFor the record, there is a lot of good news in a newscast/newspaper. In my opinion, part of the explanation is human nature: "bad" news is dramatic and grabs attention more than the good news and is easier remembered.
Nonsense. The free press wasn't established just to provide "good" news. It was set up to let people know the bad things going on so they could be corrected. Keep in mind that a newspaper can fill its pages with stories, but a half hour TV newsscast has to round up everything that would fit in a newspaper into the program. That can be very little, especially if you are talking about a national newscast. Also, although objectivity is a keystone of modern journalism, to get the attention of the reader or listener or viewer, you have to compete. That means offering the most dramatic, attention-getting stories up front. I stack my radio news stories that way for that reason.