We Have Ways of Making You Think

The news, or what we once understood too BE "the news", has ceased to be. What we NOW call the news is advertising, marketing, shallow PR masquerading as things YOU MUST KNOW. News stories oscillate between mind numbing special effects, worthless bluster and sickening fear. They deliver us a calculated, carefully engineered message designed to make us feel X and think Y. And I do think why?! WHY IS LINDSAY BREAKING DOWN AGAIN?!!?! OMG! But in all seriousness all I ask from the news is the accurate delivery of facts. I don't want hyperbole. I don't want poorly disguised opinions masquerading as facts. And I certainly don't want a morbid deathwatch of a mother of two whoever she may be. We're slowly degenerating back to the level of public hangings. Still, there's nothing like a good TV war these days. Watch those laser guided bombbombs fly!!! Wheeeeee....

Death, misery and war have, of course, become the darlings of the newsmedia. And we certainly need to know about death, misery and war throughout the world so we can at least have the desire to avoid it. However, events such as the Madeleine McCann kidnapping case or Jade Goody's struggle with cancer are analysed to the point of filthy sickness. Tragedies turn into charades to boost ratings and put, as the man said, bums on seats. If no tragedy is available, one can easily be manufactured. War coverage, meanwhile, is often more akin to a Hollywood movie. HEROES!!! VILLAINS!!! BOOM CHKCHKCHKCHKCHK!!!

Through its over the top hyperbole the news media generates fear, anger, sadness - basic emotions - among its consumers. What the people delivering this news desire is an immediate visceral reaction from its viewers and readers - the delivery of facts has become secondary. They don't want us to think primarily, rather they want us to feel. To achieve this end, the basic reality of events is grossly distorted to the point where news stories read more like pulp fiction. Human beings become monsters, the world becomes a lawless wasteland, terrorists lurk behind every post box, no one is safe...no...NOT EVEN YOU.

In short, the news media has to a large degree ceased being objective for quite some time. Behind every carefully manicured story lies an agenda, be it political or merely monetary. Of course, no one is truly objective. But what any of us should expect is at least an attempt at objectivity by our journalists. The agendas of news corporations appear to becoming more and more overtly clear as the days fly by until soon the only news we can trust to form our own opinions on will be what we see with our own eyes.

There are, of course, bastions of objective journalism alive today particularly in the print media. But they operate increasingly on the fringes. No longer can we trust the mainstream media to deliver us accurate facts. Even the BBC, once the standard bearer for its news coverage, has gone weak at the knees and stumbled gracelessly off to the side of hyperbole and slack jawed idiocy.

Mass media has incresingly began to treat us as brainless dullards with the attention spans of goldfish with ADD. Unfortunately, no one has ever gotten poor underestimating the public and thus the snowball gathers pace. Not long now before we're a nation of drooling zombies. Still, beats thinking right? Right you guys?!

I highly recommend to anyone who hasn't seen them both Charlier Brooker's Newswipe and Screenwipe and Noam Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent - both better analyses of the newsmedia than I could ever hope to put to paper. Have to dash. There's a Guantanamo Bay special on CNN about the lady who sews the orange jumpsuits to keep those evil doers in their places. Wow, she's just like you and me! Ahhh....