An Interesting Take on the News Business

Here's an interesting story I found while goofing off on a Saturday, catching up on Gator News.  Although it's a story that works in my favor as a Gator Fan, it's an interesting illustration of how the news media works. 

For years now I've been pretty ambivalent about the news.  I can't remember the last time I watched a news program on TV and I only read the newspaper in the fall on Sundays to catch up on Saturday's football scores.  Check that, I sometimes read the newspapers in the fall, but usually I just go over the SI and ESPN sites and the GatorSports site and that's enough.  For news I'll check Drudge usually once a day and on a day when I am intensely interested in the news of the day I may lightly scan an article or two they link to.  And I have a few blogs that keep up with the news that I read from time to time so I'm not completely ignorant of the news.  In fact, just last week I heard there was an election last year, and did you know we have a new President?

Now for those of you who find my lack of interest in the news heretical never fear, I get all kinds of email forwards that keep me informed of the conspiracy or EOTWAWKI scenario dujour so it's not like I'm completely out of the loop. 

With all of that, any guilt I ever felt about not keeping on top of the news was relieved when I read c. John Sommerville's book "How the News Makes Us Dumb."  In it he makes what to me is a persuasive case that the problem with the news media is not bias or incompetence on the part of the news organizations or news personnel themselves, it is the nature of the media itself.  The problem with news is it's daily-ness.  Because the news business is daily, the #1 goal of news media is to make you come back tomorrow.  Therefore, they have to focus on the sensational, they are not able to discern the significant.  In other words the nature of the beast itself prevents the news media from being a good source of . . . well . . . the news. 

So, I'm reading today about my beloved Gators (which is always significant and newsworthy!) and I come across this article in the Orlando Slantinel about why newspapers in Florida are giving more coverage to the Florida Gators than the FSWHO Seminoles.  And while it seems self-evident to me that no one with a sound mind could have any interest in knowing what happens to the nolies I was intrigued to find out why newspapers in Florida are covering the Gators more than other schools in Florida.  

The bottom line - it's readership and advertising.  While it's true that the Gators have been more newsworthy in recent years than any other athletic team on the planet, it is interesting to me why the nolies and other teams aren't getting the coverage.  Here's the writer: 

I regret to inform you that the debate is over. Newspapers undeniably prefer the Gators, though not for the reasons persecuted fans think.

It's not an orange-and-blue thing, It's a green thing.

Money is becoming scarce in the newspaper business. 

And: 

That's not to toot our horn. If the boss is ever ordered to choose between covering FSU and Florida, he'd pick the Gators.

Florida gets more readers, more Web hits and more reaction, and generates more advertising. Seminoles fans don't want to hear it. It's not fair, but a lot of things aren't fair in this scenario. Like three FSU beat writers being laid off, one just last week.

Sports fans say if only newspapers would have covered their favorite teams better, circulation wouldn't have dropped. Just as conservatives say if newspapers weren't so liberal, they wouldn't be in this fix.

The biggest reason is the billions of advertising dollars disappearing into the Internet. Things like Craigslist aren't Republican, Democrat, Seminole or Gator. The newspaper business model broke, and FSU picked a bad time to founder.

While it's been Emerald Bowl material, Florida has won two football and two basketball national championships. Which program would you cover?

Again, while I don't want anyone to waste any of few precious moments we have on this earth reading about nolies, I do think this illustrates Sommerville's points - that the goal of news is not to report the news, it is to generate readership. Interestingly enough, Sommerville was a prof at the U of F.  But because of this one ought not to think they are getting news of significance from the news, and we ought to be aware that we are being fed what will bring more readers, not what is necessarily significant. 

Sommerville's alternative is that we ought to take the time we devote to reading newspapers and watching news programs to reading books.  We need to read history and philosophy, and I would add theology, and things like that which give us a larger view of the world and give us the tools which will enable us to rightly interpret the events of our day. 

So the next question is, why are you wasting your precious time reading my blog when you could be reading something significant like philosophy, history, or theology, or the latest on the Florida Gators.  

Comments

[Catez]

Dear David,
I am reading your precious blog because you are precious. I have read things on your blog that have impacted me more than any newspaper.

Also - Been thinking of you and you are in my prayers.

[David Wayne]

Catez - great to hear from you. I hope all is well with you. I was thinking about you the other day. I have a friend who is getting a bit sick of all the changes the new regime here in America is making and is thinking about leaving the country. Said he wants to go to New Zealand. I was thinking that if he ever gets serious about this I'll have to put him in contact with you.

[Catez]

Ah - New Zealnd is beautiful but we have our own challenges here too. Not the least being the recession at the moment.