CSotD: News to amuse
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Today's xkcd is not at all funny, which is why it made me laugh.
I've been through enough media revolutions to see how they fit together. And, if I hadn't, I could still watch the movie Idiocracy for a look at the results.
I worked at a local TV station 30 years ago, when only about half the homes owned VCRs and when cable meant getting good reception from the nearest city, plus a handful of other stations from around the country. In fact, one of our engineers quit and moved to Atlanta to work for WTBS, where something interesting was going on that was supposed to revolutionize cable. Meanwhile, at our station, new ownership fired a competent, locally known news staff to bring in a more telegenic crew who were, indeed, as the stereotype suggested, blow-dried idiots. The news became glitzier and more superficial, less anchored to the community we served and, alas, gained some market share, though not enough that senior management survived the next five years.
A few years later, I worked at a radio station where, when I started, they were just finishing construction on a dish farm in the back, which would be come the hub of one of America's first satellite stations. The jocks on the FM side were carefully taught to say "20 minutes past the hour" without specifying which hour, and to never refer to the current weather or mention presence or absence of the sun or moon or refer to meal times, any one of which might be inappropriate for some distant subscribing station. And they were given playlists of songs that tested well, and those were the songs they were to play. And, all around the country, dishes were installed and disc jockeys were laid off, except for those who could tell dirty jokes during drive time. And FM radio became pasteurized and bland.
The AM side, where I worked, wasn't part of this revolution. We were news/talk, and the change on our side was to get rid of the "local arts festival" interviews and get some talk going that would really attract an audience. I wasn't in tune with that movement — In fact, I turned down a chance to interview representatives of the Aryan Nations. Some time later, a progressive talk show host in Denver whose ratings I was told I should emulate, took them on. They shot him to death in the driveway of his townhouse. My show was eventually canceled and I moved on. Within a few years, my old station became nationally known for Chuck Baker, a host who actively supported and promoted militia groups on the air.
And, of course, I've worked for several newspapers over the years, witnessing their rush to abandon their areas of expertise and enter the idiocracy of a kind of journalism that embraces each new technical fad just as the Emperor pranced in his new clothing, proud of his fashion sense and contemptuous of any who questioned it. The more "interaction" you inspire, the better a job you are doing, even if none of it translates into substantial revenues.
Which brings us to the above cartoon. I didn't have so much a moment of "Click!" as a moment of "Huh?" when Jane Pauley and Stone Phillips began to shill for people to log on to NBC and "Tell us what you think!" at the end of Dateline each week. Even in those days, when Internet access was not all-but-universal, I knew the volume of postings would be far more than Stone or Jane would be able to read. And that "huh?" has, in the intervening years, focused into a "click!" of realizing that they don't care, that there is now a culture of simulated participation that gives people a sense of mattering to the media that is an utter illusion. When 3,000 people comment on a HuffPost story or a network news report, their opinions are just so much chaff, like metal parts strewn in the air to confuse the radar.
It all reminds me of the wife in Fahrenheit 451, who sits slackjawed in front of a giant TV set that pretends to talk to her, and pretends to listen, while spoonfeeding her mindless pap. And I find it hard to believe that Ray Bradbury wrote that book nearly 60 years ago.
There was a time when the news media provided information instead of confirmation, when they embraced their expertise in gathering and presenting information. But as the media world expanded, there were so many more pieces being cut out of the pie that TV stations were no longer squabbling over a market sliced into three or four or six pieces, a phenomenon echoed in the other media, though the numbers changed.
Meanwhile, TV and radio stations and newspapers were being bought up by global corporations, which had to pay off their leveraging and still maintain a growing profit margin that would satisfy stockholders. Their loyalty was not to a family business or a community, but to numbers. And, as numbers became harder to serve, the mission became less and less focused on reporting and more and more focused on reflecting.
And so here we are.
Well, that's my blog entry for today, but I want to know what YOU think! Use our comments section to tell us what YOU think of today's comic strip of the day.com!
Mike Peterson has posted his "Comic Strip of the Day" column every day since 2010. His opinions are his own, but we welcome comments either agreeing or in opposition.
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