Alarmist Mentality
Ok, so as probably everyone knows, a new terror plot was uncovered. Terrorists were planning on destroying U.S. bound planes over the Atlantic from England. The plot was in it's final stages, supposedly a 'dry run' was happening soon according to the news.
Yet, alot of the media out there is taking the approach that the attack was happening right now, as I write this. That you better run inside and hide because plane debris is going to be falling out of the sky at any second. The media is using alarmist tactics to get ratings, they're throwing a spin on the situation. One channel I was watching was naming the different cities the planes were bound for, each with the word 'Target' in front of the city. The cities were not targets! The planes were the targets! Do you see the spin?? The media is trying to raise stress and fear about an already terrible circumstance so they can keep you glued to their station.
It seems that legit news stations are turning more to yellow journalism than true journalism now. It doesn't matter whether the stories they report are completely honest and square, but whether they can get the ratings and keep the ratings. It's disgusting.
Yet, alot of the media out there is taking the approach that the attack was happening right now, as I write this. That you better run inside and hide because plane debris is going to be falling out of the sky at any second. The media is using alarmist tactics to get ratings, they're throwing a spin on the situation. One channel I was watching was naming the different cities the planes were bound for, each with the word 'Target' in front of the city. The cities were not targets! The planes were the targets! Do you see the spin?? The media is trying to raise stress and fear about an already terrible circumstance so they can keep you glued to their station.
It seems that legit news stations are turning more to yellow journalism than true journalism now. It doesn't matter whether the stories they report are completely honest and square, but whether they can get the ratings and keep the ratings. It's disgusting.
by Ink and Stone at 6:57 AM
2 Comments:
Wait, news media use spins to get ratings? Next thing you'll tell me is that Santa Claus is not real, or that Liberace was gay.
As bad as it is that news organizations are using ratings to scare people left and right, there is an greater dilemma that surrounds the whole "ratings game". The dilemma I'm referring to is what this game costs us financially as individuals.
As ratings are inflated, commercial time for advertisers is sold at more and more of a premium. Those companies that pay those inflated costs then pass that cost back to you and I. Money that should be going toward paying the people that make the products and provide the services being advertised is instead going to pay for commercial time.
It's a viscious cycle that needs to be snapped if we want to control the cost of living and curtail the constant brainwashing that now goes on.
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