Back in the old days of Print, TV and Radio, the news didn't pay to keep the lights on. The news was a "loss leader", propped up by revenues coming from all the other programming. So there wasn't a need for newsrooms to drive revenues and increase their consumer bases. They could deliver the news straight, good, bad or indifferent. Sure they got things wrong from time to time, because humans are fallible. They didn't repeatedly get things wrong because of bias or revenues though.
When the news went 24/7/365, they had to change the model. News could no longer be dry and dispassionate until something earth shattering happened. They had to MAKE earth shattering happen, and that's where the "news" morphed into the "media". The media is not journalism. It doesn't tell stories so the truth is relayed to the people. The media generates stories, sensationalizes them and if at all possible, creates recurring discord to maintain that peak consumer base for as long as possible.
The media is a perpetually hungry animal, and that makes it dangerous. If it can make a meal of you, it will. Doesn't matter if it's right, wrong or indifferent, the beast must feed.
When the news went 24/7/365, they had to change the model. News could no longer be dry and dispassionate until something earth shattering happened. They had to MAKE earth shattering happen, and that's where the "news" morphed into the "media". The media is not journalism. It doesn't tell stories so the truth is relayed to the people. The media generates stories, sensationalizes them and if at all possible, creates recurring discord to maintain that peak consumer base for as long as possible.
The media is a perpetually hungry animal, and that makes it dangerous. If it can make a meal of you, it will. Doesn't matter if it's right, wrong or indifferent, the beast must feed.
