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Recently, PowerPointSamurai and others complained about the endless news coverage of Anna Nicole Smith that seemingly trumped “more important” headlines. Facing criticism that the news was over-reporting minor news on Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Anna Nicole Smith and other celebrities, the Associated Press went as far as to quietly ban any stories on Paris Hilton for a week.
Although it seems like lead headline news items – having bigger headlines and pictures – would capture the most traffic, that does not seem to be the case. I have noticed that CNN’s top headlines are rarely their most popular headlines. For example, the headline story at the time I wrote this was Large quake off Japan kills 1, injures scores but the most popular story listed was NASCAR’s Car of Tomorrow gets first test. I decided to observe the news for a while to see if the headline stories matched the most popular stories. Here are the most popular stories (Monday – Friday) from the last two weeks:
- *March 12 – ’World’s most valuable car’ fails to sell
- *March 13 – ‘October Road’ already winner
- *March 14 – Court: Dying face marijuana charge
- *March 15 – Disney gets black princess
- *March 16 – Decision in police groom shooting
- *March 19 – not reported
- *March 20 – Father: Lost Scout had planned to hitchhike home
- *March 21 – Prosecutor wants death penalty for boy’s slaying
- *March 22 – Actor ‘sick of being a boy’
- *March 23 – ‘Titanic’ stars DiCaprio, Winslet reuniting
Although the top stories change throughout the day, as far as I know, the only stories listed above to be featured as the headline story for at least part of the day were the groom shooting story on March 16 and the lost scout on March 20. Most of these articles were the most popular despite receiving a less prominent position on CNN’s homepage. For example, on the most recent day observed, I did not see the DiCaprio/Winslet story listed as a lead story on CNN.com, but saw two others which were much less popular: House passes spending bill with Iraq deadline (#4) and Diplomats meet over Iranian seizure of British sailors (#8).
News organizations are companies that are ultimately driven by the need to make money. This money comes from advertisers and the advertisers pay more if their ad is seen by more people. The financial motivation to publish "popular" stories over "important" stories is clear. Based on the small sample above from CNN.com, it appears the public has decided what stories are most important to them; they read the news to be entertained rather than informed. What ethics, then, should drive publishers and editors when they decide what stories to publish and promote?
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It wasn't always like that. by scottb :: NR9 :: Show
It wasn’t always the case that news organizations were driven by the need to make money. When I was young, they were generally seen as loss leaders that generated prestige for the company.
One of the things that’s changed since then is that the media companies are big conglomerates that are owned by other companies, now. They used to have one major shareholder whose personality drove the company – David Sarnoff, Edward Noble, William Paley, William Randolph Hearst, etc. But "prestige" means more to individuals than it does to companies.
Here’s an interesting article (from the US Embassy to Germany, which seems an odd place for it) that hits on a lot of interesting, related ideas.
OmniNerd guilty? by tomtolman :: NR6 :: Show
From the OmniNerd FAQ:
For the first time since OmniNerd was born over two years ago, there is a non-nerdy post up about a celebrity. Just a rant from someone who doesn’t like Rosie O’Donnell. Yet somehow, it has dominated the Coffee Shop outlasting and beating posts on morality, politics, and more. I’m not exactly sure how the coffee shop algorithm works, but it’s keeping Rosie O’Donnell above more current topics and even topics with more posts. I suspect it is rising to the top because people keep clicking on it. Why? Is that really what we are most interested in?
Jib Jab by PowerPointSamurai :: NR0 :: Show
By the way, apparently my griping didn’t go un-noticed. Those geniuses at Jib Jab evidently heard my cries of despair and relieved my sorrows with this little parody: What We Call the News
Education by gregg451 :: NR0 :: Show
The problem is most people are too dumb to want to watch serious news. Everyone would rather watch the Anna Nichole media storm than anything that really affects their lives. It gives them something to talk about.
The schools have deteriorated so much, at least half the kids are complete fucking retards. Its sad to think how much I hated school, how moronic the teachers were, and it is so much worse now. It is bizzare to be nostalgic over something I hated.
I really think there is a conspiracy to make people dumb by ruining the schools. Then public will fall for any line of bullshit politicians spew out. We have a C-student for president, so why should anyone else be any smarter?