Now, your news may not tell you what to think, but it is biased. No human is entirely without bias. I blog and I can tell you that bias is everywhere. Including here. And, to boot, your news tells you what is important and should be discussed. During the coverage of George Floyd you may remember Covid 19 going into the background real quick, and that was because the news stopped covering Covid 19 when a less-stale lead came up for them to follow.
Is this anything new? No, they've been doing this for years. Sensationalism? Yellow journalism? It is still out there. Look at war newspapers and tell me what you see. One can quickly come to the conclusion that there is nothing new under the sun. The media still tells us what to focus on and converse about. People-watch and keep an eye on the news. With no prompting, see what the people around you talk about. Do they focus on Floyd? Covid 19? Black Lives Matter? Yeah, we're being led on a leash, and the media hold the end of it.
A look into how they do it
For starters, they may do what I do on occasion - tap into trends to get more views. Do you want honesty from me? I do this more often than you may realize. Occassionally I find trends on my own, on accident - like the people-watching blog posts, but most of the time I keep an eye on twitter and the conversations around me.
Click bait, catchy headlines, trending topics - and all get more people to buy news to get more of it. This is especially so if the bias is in the direction of your opinion. They need money, rates, and advertisers to make their business go. If you think reality TV and social drama is stupid, well, think about the amount of money thrown at it. This is because people feed it. We feed and fuel what we want to see. So, sex and drama sell. There was an experiment done once that proved that the public responds to negative and danger-related words quicker than good words. In some ways, we feed what we see online and on television. A word of caution on breaking news, though - it is sometimes put on without being fact-checked, then corrected later.
Also, think of politics. Political agendas, and many nonpolitical ones, are dictated or set by current news issues. What issues do government figures talk about, even debate on? The ones that are talked about most, of course. The loudest person gets heard. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, as my late great grandmother used to say. It isn't a new idea, really.
Fear and News
Now that we know how the news sometimes functions (not always, sometimes), we connect our current issues to it. Covid 19 and Black Lives Matter are popular topics, as of right now. The news can set the tone of what to think about just by wording, so seeing fear-related words in the news is nothing new during this season. It sets a tone that says "danger! danger!", whether it is dangerous or not. To be clear, I am not calling either topic fake. I am simply saying that you should probably assess what truly is dangerous based on evidence and common sense. Keep this in mind when the breaking news bulletin comes in or Dewine speaks on anything.
I said this before and I will say it again - news needs views to keep their business going. Expect to hear about nothing but Covid 19 until it is truly over or replaced by a more compelling news topic. As long as people seek information on any topic (obsessively or moderately) the news will give the people what they want. Do you want to cut down the hype? I would suggest (kindly and honestly) that you stop adding to the hype. Less demand equals less supply. It is a common-sense theory that just might work. I look on facebook and see nothing but debates on masks, politics, and Black Lives Matter, with Defund Police added to the mix. We are trying to scream our opinions at people without listening. You want it to stop? Stop screaming and start listening.
The dark side of what is already dark is that we divide ourselves with the help of the news. We create loyalty to causes, some of which are good and some of which are bad, that result in lines in the sand. We were not formed by God's hand only to fight constantly over every social issue known to man. Fear is nothing new, sadly. It is a function we discovered all by ourselves. Fear can make someone a human weapon and steer us places we didn't know we could ever reach. I'll put this as nicely as possible - cut the leash that media and fear holds over you and imagine everyone as God's own child, then make decisions. Don't blindly follow what your news station tells you.
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