Hot Topic - Media And The Virus
Journalistic populism describes quite well the editorial orientation of many tabloids. It ties conveniently with click-bait and outrage. Public health and safety are, then, but abstractions to be derided for sake of pocket change. Coronavirus policies are easy targets. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.
Humans are creatures of habit. From philosophers to economists this has been long observed. Psychologists say our habits can make us happy. Disturbing those habits make us very cranky. Neuroscientists have found our habits - good and bad - live deep inside our brains. “Once these patterns form, it becomes extremely difficult to break the habit,” said one. This explains a lot.
Social media platforms have been roundly disparaged for failing to curb misinformation, fake news and hate speech. It is an expensive proposition for them, risking profits and share prices. The other risk, negative consumer opinion, can also be costly, particularly when lawmakers add to the rain on their parade. That free speech defense collapses when real lives are at risk from disinformation. When advertisers and telecoms, the financial backbone, are unwilling to put their own brands at risk social media platforms hit the brakes.
Sports and media seemed irretrievably separated this time last year. The coronavirus factor broke links, nearly all of them. Sports writers and show hosts were apoplectic, even apocalyptic. Change became the trite word of the decade; totally appropriate, totally useless.
Endless tensions are a reporting thread common across the world. There is climate change and destructive weather. There is tension from the continuing coronavirus pandemic. Dictators cause tensions, relish in the disruption and reward their stampeding mobs. Yoga is the answer.
The media world has been through a monumental trouncing. People formerly known as listeners, viewers and readers, for a variety of reasons, have changed the buttons, dials and related habits. Some of this change has no single reason except, perhaps, the passage of time. What is clear is that broadcasters and publishers will either trudge on or invent something else. The audience is not waiting for next season.
The last year and a half have been something of a challenge for radio broadcasters. With pandemic lockdowns keeping people - often known as listeners - at home that traditional morning commute surely disappeared leaving the most important venue for radio broadcasters, the automobile, safely in the garage. All of a sudden morning radio morning radio wasn’t so much fun anymore, just something else about coronavirus spreading and vaccines arriving. It all took a bit of adjustment.
The media world has always looked to their advertising brethren for inspiration. Money was always the most important link but adroit crafting of language long trickled on to media from ad land. So, we had synergy. And it’s coming to an end as these thing often do.
The mid-year advertising forecasts are out and there’s dancing in the streets, at least among the happy advertising people. Double-digit increases are expected all over, almost. Ad spending last year was, at best, tepid as consumers declined to part with their money, except for streaming video subscriptions, and advertisers followed suit.
As springtime arrives in the northern hemisphere and coronavirus restrictions begin to abate radio broadcasters are set to embrace exhausted listeners. Through the last 12 to 15 months, consuming media of all sorts has been a challenge. Quite naturally, people adapt their choices to disrupted routines. Where the work had been rather stable for decades, media operators had few cues for the publics' wants and needs. What a surprise!
There are so many smart people out there. Every opportunity can be turned into cryptocurrency, which is the post-modern measure of being smart. Little is left for folks just trying to get through the day and turn on the TV that evening to watch the favorite team. This isn’t too complicated. Sometimes smart people miss it.
News organizations adore numbers. From election polls and results to sports scores, TV ratings and the Dow Jones Industrial Averages data is big, just following silly animal videos and gruesome crime scene photos. People like winners. Reporters like losers. Editors like pictures. There are courses and conferences on data journalism. Words cannot describe this, which is the point.
It is the waning days of winter in the Northern Hemisphere. Spring will arrive in a week or so, according to the calendar and not necessarily the weather. The arrival of spring, though, brings the onset of entrant nominees for the Eurovision Song Contest. It was not held last year due to the first coronavirus wave.
Life is not fair. The coronavirus upheaval took that to the extreme. Millions of people became ill, sometimes desperately, just from breathing. Hundreds of thousands died. Nothing should minimumize the loss to their families, friends and colleagues. Nothing can understate the grief and anxiety. The social cost has been immense.
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