Media Hype
February 10th, 2016
Thank you Yolanda Gibson for the request.
Yolanda wants to know why “the media is blowing everything up”. So what is media-hype?
Collins English Dictionary – media-hype: Intensive or exaggerated publicity in the mass media.
Dictionary.com – media-hype: Concentrated favorable publicity for a person, corporation, candidate, etc.
Also pertinent is media circus.
Collins English Dictionary – media circus: If an event is described as a media-circus it is when a large group of people are there to report on it and take pictures.
Dictionary.com – media-circus: An occasion of very extravagant media coverage, esp television.
The tendency to blow things up is never more apparent than with entertainment and politics. The two are very easily confused. Donald Trump is the entertainer of the year while several actors and musicians have political agendas. We can blame much of the “blowing up” on technology. Years ago it was more difficult to reach your audience in a timely fashion but today there’s a zillion more channels and stations not to mention stories, photos, and videos at the end of a few key strokes. Leonardo DiCapprio went viral on social media for a wide eyed look at Lady Gaga after she accidentally bump into him at an awards ceremony.
This would have been nowhere close to news worthy 20 years ago maybe even a decade ago. So we can get information in real time and from many different sources. My daughter has to have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and maybe more. She walks in intervals from her room to the living room watching TV and fussing with her iPhone. We are surrounded by media throughout the day and it would be no surprise to me if we dreamed electric sheep. All this media; who controls what’s true and not true or how much a broadcaster can skew information. The answer is no-one.
There use to be a tool called the Fairness Doctrine imposed in 1949. It was a policy of the Federal Communications comion (FCC). This is a video that is full of propaganda and hype but it lets you what the Fairness Doctrine was. 3 min 48 sec.
https://youtu.be/xwDI84b3P1Y
Just to be fair and balanced I offer you this mock interview with one good point in the whole thing. 9 min 10 sec.
The one good point it makes is not so difficult to get around. I say let broadcasters say what they will in the form of opinion.
First Amendment – Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
You should not be able to broadcast anything known to be untrue as true and vice versa. That should be illegal. Let the liberoids and conservaroids, radicals and fascist stand at their polar extremes and spout what ever gibberish they believe to be true but increase the licensing fees to give rise to the moderate view. Bulldoze as much air time for that moderate view that sensationalist get regardless of the ratings. America was intended to have an informed public to cast an intelligent vote based on the truth. It’s the sole purpose of freedom of the press. This accommodates both the Spirit of the Law and the Letter of the Law. The 1st Amendment is to be sure that our Country doesn’t constipate the People’s ideas so that the People will always be a true part of the political process. It’s also intended to stop the sickening diarrhea that we’re all drowning in (lies and bias). Free Speech is not to lie, deceive, and degenerate. It’s to uplift the People from the bonds of tyranny and ignorance yet be governed civilly by the truth. While the Spirit of this Law seems undeniably dominant to me but the letter can not be disregarded. A person has the right to say whatever the hell they want as long as it doesn’t amount to yelling FIRE (when there is none) in crowded movie theater. Broadcasters have a responsibility to yell fire when there is one. Some speech amounts to burning embers in the walls of the theater. “Iran can be trusted with a nuclear arms program”. Free speech and Freedom of the Press are to warn us of the impending fire that we can’t see. Mandating a moderate broadcast service allows us to mend the fabric of Free Speech right in the middle where the more extreme media activity have torn it. 1/3 of the time, money, and channels/stations for the conservatives, liberals, and moderates will keep the wealthier group from buying tomorrows reality. There’s no law that states you should be able to buy a people’s demise because you can afford it. If the People do not stay the mainstay of this Government, this Government will fail.
So Yolanda media-hype and media-circus sideshows are blowing up because that’s what sells. It’s what gets the ratings with no regard for groups that consolidate information to a single truth. It’s a distraction for the People as to limit knowledge about the real State of the Union and I imagine it to be the same for other countries around the world. When you’re watching TV or you’re on your phone or computer be sure to consider there’s always more that you don’t know as opposed to what you do know. Until next time, keep your homes well.
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