Yeah true. That's why we have political fraction and division so prevalent today. We tend to only consume what reinforces our preexisting beliefs. I still think the news media and entertainment media push specific agendas. The latter more subliminally.
Discussion
It's pretty clear to me that the press is pretty motivated by consumer preferences. I think people over-estimate how much nefarious agendas are at play, under-estimate how much commercial media are essentially just echo chambers for hire. Cable news in particular.
To wit, if CNN had a true left-wing agenda, it wouldn't be giving Trump the platform they are. They're doing it because it raises rating and brings in advertising dollars. They're selling a product. That product is continuous moral outrage. Which is also what Fox News is selling. I think this is a problem with human nature more than anything. Which I get is very cynical. But I think it's unfortunately true.
I disagree on how much they're motivated by their consumers but agree with your point about there not being a nefarious agenda. I don't think there's an evil cabal trying to manipulate the masses but I do think there are specific agendas which can't be deviated from.
CNN getting Trump on was purely for viewers but CNN anchors (Cooper et al) weren't happy about it. CNN has its own left-wing agenda undoubtedly. As does Fox with a right-wing agenda. I'm not in the US but even I can see that. Trump was guaranteed to pull in viewers and last I saw CNN viewership numbers are in the gutter.
Before the internet, mass media controlled the narrative so there was less need for moral outrage but the media was used to swing public opinion on various events. E.g. Weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
It's not just news media either. It's corporates in the form of public relations.
Yeah. I don't think they care about the outrage as long as the ratings are up. I really don't.
You think their real agenda is not about pushing a political message at all but getting their ratings up?
Basically. I mean, people have choices. I also think it's pretty strange that when people say "mainstream media", they tend to exclude things like Fox News, even though it is quite literally the most watched news network in the US.
I have a far more cynical view of these things than most other people. I think humans are looking for dopamine hits and to confirm their biases. And there's a lot of people selling that as a product.
I think I’d prefer it if they were in the business of selling dopamine hits over them pushing an agenda for political purposes. That way, perhaps we aren’t as divided as it seems. And going back to my initial note, if we can change the media we can change the culture.
My question remains: what is the culture we're aiming for? 🤷🏻♂️
Don’t know. It shouldn’t be for any one person to decide. One thing’s for certain, at least from my perspective, it doesn’t seem to be getting better which I think is mostly the media’s fault.
I agree it's not getting better. We disagree on how confidently we can apportion blame.
🤝 out of interest, who do you think is to ‘blame’ for a decking culture?