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Be Afraid (and Buy Soap)

We as citizens of the United States, live in a time when information isn't just more available to us whenever we want it, and it's also available when we don't. The media, ranging from sources as old as the daily newspaper to as modern as the mobile Internet, is delivering more information to us now than any generation of people has in history and what is the driving force behind it all?

You guessed it, money.

Journalism is a profession that those who work in it regard with much reverence. Yet it's just a susceptible to the sway of the almighty dollar as any other industry operating under our capitalist system.

There are a few constants about the general public when it comes to news. 1. They want to know what's going on. 2. They want it by the most convenient means possible. 3. Deliver the news most conveniently and you can get most of the public to come to you. 4. If you have most of the public there already, you can then deliver any other message you desire more conveniently as well. This of course, is what we call advertising.

This is how it breaks down. Reporting the news costs money, lots of it to the companies who do, and for the most part it's quite inexpensive to come by for the consumer and often times free. Therefore, the money it takes to report the news must be generated somewhere to pay the journalist, their staff, and assuredly generate profit. So, advertisers pay to splice their messages in with the news in hopes that the news content is so compelling that people continue to watch and listen to the profit-driven messages sprinkled in between, and voila you've got your revenue. So, the challenge for the journalist isn't just to report the news as it happens, but to convey it in a manner that is going to be so riveting that the masses cannot take their eyes, or ears, off of it.

So what's the best way to get someone's attention? Scare the living bejeezus out of them, that's how. If you've ever hid behind the corner and jumped out to scare your little brother, you know that for at least the next 5 seconds, you've got his undivided attention. What works on little brother generally works on the masses and hence you have the scary media. In one breath their telling you about epidemics and "dirty bombs" (so you better not stop watching), and in the next their telling you that "you're not fully clean, unless your Zest-fully clean" (so you better get your stinky ass out there and buy some soap).

From this point, it's simply a numbers game. If you pull in and hold the greatest audience, you can generally charge the most for your advertisers to be included with your newscast. Scaring people seems to generate the biggest numbers, so that's how our news now gets delivered. If we really want to reverse this trend, then we should simply stop wanting to be scared and stop tuning into the sensationalist media.

There are mediums out there that won't try to mesmerize you with flashy graphics, gory images, and scary words. Generally, it's where the advertisers are not welcome, and if you're skeptical of where this might be, then just tune into PBS. There, on the Newshour with Jim Lehrer, you'll see the blandest newscast imaginable, hardly any graphics or scary words, but you'll probably get a pretty good handle on what's going on, and isn't that's what's most important?

Learn more about this author, J.R. Dumas.
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