The American media diet
: Stuart Hughes of the BBC spent a few weeks in America and came away with this impression of American media:
... what has struck me most is the homogeneity of the coverage on offer there.DOWLOAD SOLDAT 12 Posted by jarvis at February 10, 2004 03:32 PM | TrackBack
Journalists in every country I’ve ever worked in hunt in packs, chasing the same stories and pursuing the same angles. But the US media seems almost unique in the narrowness of its focus.
The daily news cycle is totally predictable. The president will make a comment some time in the late morning which will be instantly seized upon, dissected and analysed. White House spokesman Scott McClellan will try to talk up or shut down stories in his lunchtime briefing. During the course of the day Rumsfeld, Powell or another administration bigwig may throw the hacks a morsel to chew on by stepping up to the cameras and saying something mildly interesting. And so it goes on, round and round, day after day.
Insignificant events (such as Janet Jackson’s bare breast at the Superbowl or Martha Stewart’s stock portfolio) become major stories simply by their relentless amplification by the news media. Politics is covered as if it were a sporting contest or a fashion parade – Who’s in? Who’s out? Who’s up? Who’s down? Every news network is looking over their shoulder at their competitors, fearful of missing a trick. The result of this introspective media circle jerk is that there’s little to differentiate any of the major networks....
Nail, meet head.DOWLOAD SOLDAT 12 Posted by: Max on February 10, 2004 03:34 PM
Gosh, the problem gets way worse when the major news organ is an unaccountable gummint monopoly like the BBC. They've gotten so arrogant they think they're not only a political party, they think they're the Opposition.DOWLOAD SOLDAT 12 Posted by: Insufficiently Sensitive on February 10, 2004 03:45 PM
Regardless of the source, this criticism is entirely valid and worth admitting into your thoughts, past the (understandable) walls of anti-BBC bias many of us (including myself) have erected. The media - the print media, television media, heck, everything except perhaps internet media - really is a big circle jerk. Where are the investigative stories? Where are the people pursuing leads outside of the usual groupthink? Why does my father regularly ask great questions about issues/scandals that only occur to the press WEEKS later, if at all, for example?DOWLOAD SOLDAT 12
I have no idea if the British press suffers from the same mentality - I suspect it's a problem endemic to media groupings as a phenomenon, not just US media - but it's worth acknowledging that there's a very trenchant point to be made here.DOWLOAD SOLDAT 12 Posted by: Jeff B. on February 10, 2004 04:56 PM
The comments are fair regarding national corporate media in the U.S. The pack instinct is fed by an unwillingess to take risks that might result in reduced revenue. National media won't put the resources into complicated, nuanced, difficult-to-report stories that take a long time and a lot of money to to research and write, for fear that no one will watch any way. What passes for "in-depth" of "investigative" reporting is a 60-Minutes style one-on-one interview or a collection of voiced-over clips of some celebrity who has done something incredibly stupid.DOWLOAD SOLDAT 12
Having watched, listened to, and read it for a few years, I think Brit national media is just as corporate, just a pack driven, and just as risk averse. DOWLOAD SOLDAT 12 Posted by: billg on February 10, 2004 05:15 PM
He's absolutely right. I think it has to do w/ US media's desire to be unbiased. Oddly enough Fox News is actually closer to the Brit. model whereby one knows (exactly) what there getting when they tune in. But, we need real liberal alternatives to Fox. DOWLOAD SOLDAT 12 Posted by: AO on February 10, 2004 09:49 PM
Might the homogenity not have something to do with the fact that most US journalists go to Journalism school while those of other countries dont?DOWLOAD SOLDAT 12 Posted by: Giles on February 11, 2004 12:04 AM
I figured out everything this guy said twenty years ago and I'm not even in the business! At least our media don't so misquote people and lie that theyu hang themselves.DOWLOAD SOLDAT 12
As to liberal alternatives to Fox, PBS has been around a lot longer than Fox and it's already paid for by the taxpayers. What more could you want?DOWLOAD SOLDAT 12 Posted by: Mr. Davis on February 11, 2004 12:58 AM
Real liberal alternatives to Fox?DOWLOAD SOLDAT 12
Pick one. Or start watching free speech TV which is on satellite.DOWLOAD SOLDAT 12
Or listen to NPR.DOWLOAD SOLDAT 12 Posted by: Sandy P. on February 11, 2004 01:00 AM
Or, you could just listen to the BBC.....DOWLOAD SOLDAT 12 Posted by: Sandy P. on February 11, 2004 01:00 AM
FYI... Stuart Hughes is an extremely bright fellow who was blogging from the front lines in the Iraq War - in his audblogs you can here artillery shells in the background. In the midst of it he lost his leg and his blog became a place to deal with his injury and the loss of his cameraman. He's a very astute student and creator of media and, obviously, summed up everything that's wrong with big media in this country. It may be obvious to some, but I think most people aren't aware of it. DOWLOAD SOLDAT 12 Posted by: Chuck Olsen on February 11, 2004 02:55 AM
His commentary is right on target -- usually even down to the exact placement of the stories on broadcast news. If you flip the stations during the news, you can usually leave one story on one network and pick up the rest of the story on the next network newscast.DOWLOAD SOLDAT 12
Newspapers are no better. It is all one circle jerk.DOWLOAD SOLDAT 12 Posted by: Anne on February 11, 2004 09:34 AM
Well, for a start, the U.S. print media could start emulating the British press with its own version of the "Page Three" girls. DOWLOAD SOLDAT 12 Posted by: Percy Dovetonsils on February 11, 2004 10:50 AM
an unaccountable gummint monopoly like the BBCDOWLOAD SOLDAT 12
You mean 'an independent public corporation, accountable to the terms of its Charter, like the BBC', surely? Either that or you're just ill-informed about its structure.DOWLOAD SOLDAT 12
And he's right. As a British expat (at ETcon on a press pass) I've grown used to the same rhythms of the news-day, the same deferential anchors, the amazing 'was Janet Jackson's breast a publicity stunt -- stay tuned for a ten-minute discussion' coverage on the news networks.DOWLOAD SOLDAT 12 Posted by: . on February 13, 2004 04:37 AM