by Brad Norman

Created on: July 21, 2008

Hundreds of millions of people every day rely on the media for the news. People have a fascination, a need really, to understand the world in which they live. Since it's impossible for any one person to be everywhere at once, we rely on the media. The media can, in fact, be everywhere since it is a network of people that cover nearly every inch of the globe. As such, the media is able to provide us with news from everything from wars and famine to what Britney Spears is having for breakfast. Anything we want to know we can get from the media... or can we?

First off, let's face the big fat truth of the media: it is run by companies. A company exists for one primary purpose, and that is to make a profit. If a company doesn't make a profit, it ceases to exist. Therefore, the only companies that exist are those that make a profit. The major source of revenue for these types of companies is selling advertising to other businesses, and this source of income is directly proportional to the number of viewers, listeners or readers that particular media has. A national broadcaster could pull in millions of dollars per ad because they have a vast number of viewers, whereas a small local newspaper that reaches only a few thousand people may be able to only net a couple hundred dollars for their ads. This doesn't seem to be a big problem at a glance, but the truth of the matter is that for these companies to increase their profits, they must increase their viewership. To do this, the media is very picky over what it does and doesn't broadcast. Tangly or difficult issues that a large number of people don't want to deal with, no matter how important, may be ignored by the media. Other junk like celebrity gossip may suck up a huge portion of media attention, no matter how trivial, because for some reason a large number of people appear to be interested in knowing what Brad Pitt and Angelina Joli are doing with their babies.

But beyond simply choosing what to report and what to reject, the media may actually alter a story to make it more sensational and larger-than-life than it actually is. After all, people are more likely to watch a news story about some seemingly huge world-scale event than they are to watch one about something that will have no lasting impact. By painting even a small insignificant event to appear as an epic ground breaking story, the media can boost rating and increase profits. Let's hop back to the Brad and Angelina example for a second. The basic gist of the story is this: A couple has baby twins. Not exciting at all, it happens every day to tons of people but it never ever makes the news. So the media puts a spin on it. "Powerful world-renound philanthropists Brad Pitt and Angelina Joli give life to two beautiful heirs." See, that second one has a bit more kick to it. More people are likely to read a story about something that seems important, even though it's no more important than a million other similar stories out there.

In short, the media is a business. Like all businesses, they need to make a buck and the only way to do so is to entice people with juicy stories. The boring stories, even if important, are ignored. And the trivial stories, though not important, are super-charged to draw in readers. It's all about the money.

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