Governing Magazine recently ran a report on the emergence of several politically-tied websites in Michigan. Designed to look like “real” news organizations, the sites– linked to a variety of partisan political groups– are expanding across the state in preparation for the 2020 election.
At about the same time, The Intellectualist reported on yet another study of Fox News; to the surprise of no one other than the network’s devoted audience (who will dismiss it as “fake news”), the study found that nearly 60% of statements made on Fox were either partially or entirely false–and that as a result, Fox News viewers are more likely to believe repeatedly debunked conspiracy theories.
I could add dozens of other examples of our current media environment–an environment characterized by the loss of what we once called “mass media” and its replacement by a digital universe of “news” sites spanning the spectrum from objective reporting to partisan spin to propaganda.
Regular readers of this blog–not to mention my students–are well aware of my near-obsession with the effects of this current media environment on governance. I’ve become increasingly convinced that America’s tribalism and dysfunction are directly linked to the fragmentation of our information landscape, but I have struggled to come up with a clear explanation of that link.
Tom Wheeler could explain it. And in an article for the Brookings Institution, he did.
Wheeler was the head of the FCC in the Obama Administration, and is a knowledgable and thoughtful observer of today’s media environment. I really, really encourage you to click through and read the article in its entirety.
The most incisive observation Wheeler makes is that the American media has gone from broadcasting to targetcasting.
Since the time of the early advertising-supported newspapers, economic incentive has worked to bring people together around a common set of shared information. Maximizing ad revenue meant offending as few readers as possible by at least attempting a balanced presentation of the facts. The search for balance began to retreat with the arrival of cable television, but the economic model of maximizing revenue by maximizing reach still governed. The targeting capability of social media algorithms, however, has extinguished the traditional economic model. Now profit comes not through the broad delivery of common information, but the targeted delivery of selected information. The result is an attack on the model of shared information that is necessary for a democracy to function.
Radio and television are “broadcasting”: from a single source they deliver to the widest possible audience. Broadcasting changed the nature of communications from after-the-fact newspapers to the wide distribution of real time information. The image of a family huddling around the radio to hear one of FDR’s fireside chats comes to mind; a common set of inputs available to all upon which to base collective decisions.
Cable television is “narrowcasting.” Cable is like a video newsstand with many titles from which to choose. To differentiate themselves on this newsstand cable news channels developed “an attitude” espousing different political viewpoints. While narrowcasting was driven by conflict and disagreement, the revenue-maximizing goal was still the same as broadcasters’: reach the largest audience possible.
Social media is “targetcasting.” Software algorithms owned by the social media platforms watch how users behave online and use that data to categorize them into specific groups. They then sell advertisers the ability to reach those groups. Targetcasting companies make money the opposite way from broadcasters and narrowcasters. Instead of selling reach to a wide audience, they charge a premium to target a small but specifically defined group.
An even greater differentiator between traditional media and social media is how targetcasting is available only to a specific audience. Such secret targeting tears at the fabric of democracy. The Founding Fathers made E Pluribus Unum (out of many one) the national motto. They began the Constitution with the collective “We the people.” Such a coming together, the Founders realized, was essential for their experiment in democracy to function.
To become “We” requires a suspension of human nature’s tribal instincts in favor of a shared future. Such a belief is predicated in part on shared information.
I have taken the liberty of quoting Wheeler at length, because I think this description is at the very heart of what ails our politics. It is the crux of the problem. We really don’t occupy the same reality, because we don’t have a “common set of inputs upon which to base collective action.”
As Wheeler writes,
Coming together in an environment of shared information—an information commons—is a key component of moving from tribes to the larger Unum. When the algorithms of social media follow the money, they discourage the search for Unum and undermine the communal “We.” By delivering different information to each tribe—in secret—the algorithms keep users online for as long as possible, maximizing ad sales. In doing so, they gnaw away at the heart of “We the people.”
And as always, we are left with the question: what can we do about this? How do we re-establish an information commons? Because if we don’t, the future looks very, very grim.
Thank you. This helps me understand media.
Algorithms are set to also determine how to manipulate thought. Free thought and conscience are more in jeopardy than ever.
As far as Trump is concerned 2/3rds of the coverage is deemed more harsh than on Obama. What’s difficult is that certain politicians make for great comedy. Even Bill playing the sax on TV became a point of comedy.
Red for Ed is today as a side note!
We should note the change to the national motto. We are no longer “e pluribus unum,” rather we are now “in God we trust.” Oh and by the way, it had better be the right God, or it doesn’t count.
The business model for news and the media in the United States – and presumably elsewhere – is to sell air time to sponsors, newspapers and magazines sponsored by product makers of various sorts which are directed at target audiences. The TV ads on MSNBC in the morning and the evening are very different. Fortunately, in spite of what some say about MSNBC, the news throughout the day is consistent and their panelists are serious and experts in their field. Unlike Fox, where everything is an “opinion” devoid of facts, MSNBC panelists tend to avoid opinions based on their own analysis. Rather they discuss the known information from reliable sources and develop the thoughts from there. Perfect? No. Informative? Yes. Fox exists, as Roger Files used to brag, for the sole purpose of telling the public what Fox wanted them to hear. We’re still hearing Ailes’ brain at work in Hannity, Carlson and Ingraham, their prime-time team of bullshit artists.
Nicolle Wallace said the other day that Ingraham was a lot of things, but stupid wasn’t one of them. Okay. So her great intelligence tells her that she has to lie and obfuscate and massage facts to fit her audience, and audience that is already all-in for those fabrications. Anyone who has read Roger Ailes’ story knows that as brilliant as he was, he was a deeply disturbed man from a wretched upbringing who became obsessed with forcing his will on others. I believe it was Ronald Reagan who first hired this guy to front his campaigns. And we’re still paying the price for the attacks on labor unions.
I wrote three books about this, but none of them matter now. What matters is the current events that will make the next book worth reading….at least for the sake of history.
The solution may require out of the norm thinking, but such is the nature of the problem. We may need legislative guardrails on the 1st Amendment and/or the Web (such a quaint word these days!) Maybe some kin to the somewhat successful role of the FTC in ensuring that advertisements do not tell out and out lies?
The article also mentions the elimination of the Fairness Doctrine, which I posit is one of the most dangerous decisions made during the Reagan administration. While it no longer exists, I believe that a *huge* portion of Americans still believe that “they can’t say it on tv/radio/the internet if it isn’t true”. And so they quickly get lulled into believing lies. Especially lies like those Fox News and Limbaugh and Alex Jones and all the other RWNJs (who don’t believe what a thing that they say, they simply believe in profit) which focus on fear. When Fox News first started airing, my husband said “their motto should be “Fox News, Are You at Risk?”, because every other story was something absolutely terrifying.
Unfortunately, fear is the father of anger and hate, and when I think of my acquaintances who adore Fox, their anger and hate are now their most defining characteristics. Oh, and having “God fearing Christian” in their profile, which appears just above their posts calling Obama the n-word and saying that asylum seekers should be shot on sight.
When the MSM starts in on the false equivalence that Rs and Ds are equally hateful toward one another, I want to pull out every gray hair on my head. The R’s hate unequivocally. The D’s, on the other hand, fear that hate and what it’s doing to our country.
Until/if Citizens United is overturned, and Fairness Doctrine-like rules are put in place, folks who profit from sowing fear, hate and anger will continue to fracture our country by luring the gullible (and those predisposed to hate and anger) to the dark side. I’m not optimistic.
The answer to the ultimate question Sheila poses is an emphasis on teaching and/or constant exposure to critical thinking, but the benefits to be derived therefrom may not accrue in time to save our experiment in democracy, and if not, then the question becomes what our next experiment in governing will look like and a good guess is that it will be of a more authoritarian nature. We are seeing a preview of such a fate presently with the so-called Trump administration at work in carrying out Bannon’s admittedly pro-Leninist plan for “deconstruction of the administrative state,” aka destruction of our democracy.
Thus now we hear the drumbeat (advertising) from the rich and corporate class that our present crop of Democratic candidates for president are socialists and that an election of one of them will mark the end of America etc., as though capitalism with such mind-altering programs as advertising and other propaganda spigots hasn’t already taken us to that precipice in governing with the present loonies in charge. Critical thinkers can see through this greedy chaff and make such decisions on their own oblivious to claims and forecasts of doom by both socialists and capitalists, but it won’t be easy given that we live in a sea of claims and counterclaims by those who have money to make or other axes to grind in search of power.
So what to do in our time and space? Think critically, tell the truth, and ferociously defend the most precious asset we hold in common, our democracy, from all its enemies foreign or domestic.
Well, a prime example, was the German Nazi experiment. Actually, if Hitler wouldn’t of been so crazy, they might have won the war.
Not only did the Nazi party control media, they also produced foils, the one everyone remembers is the Jews. The media was a propaganda machine to reinforce the Nazi movement and basically sanctified Adolf Hitler. He was thought of as a prophet, holy man, an empathetic leader to the Aryan cause, and an intellectual powerhouse.Sound familiar?
King David mentioned this millennia ago, in Psalms 55:21 which reads; “his words are smoother than butter, but conflict is in his heart. His words are softer than oil, but they are drawn swords.
The 2nd letter to Timothy written by the apostle Paul stated in the 4th chapter and verse 3 and 4, it reads; “for there will be a period of time when they will not put up with wholesome teaching, but according to their own desires, they will surround themselves with teachers to have their ears tickled. They will turn away from listening to the truth and give attention to false stories.”
So, there was a certain amount of foresight by those who have written Scripture.
But like I had mentioned before, there has been a saturation point that has been reached. Social media, state run propaganda that disguises itself as media, and a population that loves to practice willful ignorance. They look for those who “tickle their ears.” You can call it tribalism, but it’s more than that. Most will think this comment is ridiculous, but that’s just more tribalism.
I wouldn’t comment on anything if I felt I was tickling someone’s ears, that’s not what this platform is about, at least that’s what I would believe. And that’s the only reason I feel it’s appropriate to digest all the comments here.
This is not an example of garbage in garbage out, much of social media, Fox, Newsmax, Breitbart, and the like, are trash recyclers. Truth seekers are so far behind the curve on this, they might not ever catch up.
Well, a prime example, was the German Nazi experiment. Actually, if Hitler wouldn’t of been so crazy, they might have won the war.
Not only did the Nazi party control media, they also produced foils, the one everyone remembers is the Jews. The media was a propaganda machine to reinforce the Nazi movement and basically sanctified Adolf Hitler. He was thought of as a prophet, holy man, an empathetic leader to the Aryan cause, and an intellectual powerhouse. Sound familiar?
King David mentioned this millennia ago, in Psalms 55:21 which reads; “his words are smoother than butter, but conflict is in his heart. His words are softer than oil, but they are drawn swords.
The 2nd letter to Timothy written by the apostle Paul stated in the 4th chapter and verse 3 and 4, it reads; “for there will be a period of time when they will not put up with wholesome teaching, but according to their own desires, they will surround themselves with teachers to have their ears tickled. They will turn away from listening to the truth and give attention to false stories.”
So, there was a certain amount of foresight by those who have written Scripture.
But like I had mentioned before, there has been a saturation point that has been reached. Social media, state run propaganda that disguises itself as media, and a population that loves to practice willful ignorance. They look for those who “tickle their ears.” You can call it tribalism, but it’s more than that. Most will think this comment is ridiculous, but that IS tribalism.
I wouldn’t comment on anything if I felt I was tickling someone’s ears, that’s not what this platform is about, at least that’s what I would believe. And that’s the only reason I feel it’s appropriate to digest all the comments here.
This BLOG is NOT an example of garbage in garbage out, but, much of social media is. Fox, Newsmax, Breitbart, and the like, are trash recyclers. Truth seekers are so far behind the curve on this, they might not ever catch up.
Sorry for the oops.
Formerly journalism made money based on their ability to report first and above all reliably. They actually shared that business model with research scientists although the two professions used entirely different methods and knowledge.
That business model has been between somewhat and largely replaced depending on the specific business with one of counting eyeballs and ears. Not only does that have the potential to increase income, but cuts costs tremendously. It’s just plain better business against the standard of make more money now regardless of the impact of any others, ever.
The external cost which doesn’t count? Democracy, self government, freedom. That is what we demonstrate is of declining value. We are no longer willing to pay the cost of it because pervasive entertainment media makes it so easy to just relax and coast through life. Clowns, lions eating Christians and Gladiators besting others in the local taxpayer funded Coliseum, sex in all forms, field reports on what the vivacious look like this week, whose home is getting destroyed by today’s weather and/or war, which McMansions and McICEmobiles are besting all comers today and who’s buying and selling them, all of the stuff more important to us than freedom is paraded before us and demands our attention and it requires no effort on our part.
Whe are comatose at home because doing that enables wealth redistribution and we all know that is so much more important than freedom.
“the guardian,how local fake news websites spread conservitive propaganda in the u.s.” todays edition…
We can thank Bill Clinton for the merger’s acquisitions, conglomeration and coagulation of the Media is a whole with his Telecommunications Act. People warned about the potential for the few corporations to control media outlets from coast to coast.
I rarely watch FOX, CNN or MSDNC, we know in advance that their “anchors” will assemble a group of “expert panelists” to reach a forgone conclusion. Each cable network has selected their target audience – customers and provides the “news” they want to hear.
I prefer Newsy, for News on TV.
I would have said that Rupert Murdoch played a bigger role than Bill Clinton did.
There are a lot of smart folks on this blog. Today’s (and too many others says) spew enormous energy decrying/laying blame for the critical problems of today.
How about focusing the brainpower on suggesting or brainstorming on potential solutions? If there are none to be had; then we are on that creek without that paddle….
Lester,
There are plenty of examples, of what is going on right now, in history! Governments, politicians, civil servants, general populations, refused to learn from that history. Some of it is probably due to our mortality, we have to rely on the older generation or history books, and just like little kids, we say, “I want to make my own mistakes” or, “you just don’t understand.”
When there have been interlopers agitating government, or trying to change the rules of governance, it usually ends up in a lot of bloodletting. As a matter of fact, I can’t recall any event in history where there was not a bloodletting. Americans are armed to the teeth, the right is worried about black helicopters, the United Nations, immigrants, and how much treasure they can steal! Religious freedom, is just a mask to cover up their true shenanigans. Not only that, when you can keep people working for a meager minimum wage, when you can keep them from getting healthcare, when you can take away their food and sustenance lifelines, when you can demolish public education, when senior citizens are trying to live on a $700 a month stipend, they’re all too worried about trying to stay alive, and not fighting for fairness! Many folks don’t have the wherewithal, the stamina, or the financial leeway to get involved in a fight anyway. The right has been doing this for generations.
So, what can you do? How can you correct the problem? It will have to play out as it has throughout history, and it will not be pretty. Too bad mankind can’t learn from its previous mistakes, we never learn.