Enraged Engagement
Here is an observation that Yogi Berra might make if he were alive today:
- Nobody watches cable news anymore, it is far too popular.
Whether we admit it or not, many of us get our news from popular sources, including FOX, CNN, MSNBC and even Facebook and Twitter. It seems like we all get drawn into their worlds whenever we feel like we need to catch up.
When we tune in, we quickly get fully engaged... and fully enraged too!
(Especially if what is being reported strikes a chord that fits our preferred narrative.)
And whatever is reported always reinforces our very cynical and angry view of the world.
These days, everyone seems to be pissed off! Could it be cable news? Maybe Facebook and Twitter? The president?
Kenosha
Many of you know that last week was a rough one in Kenosha, Wisconsin. One person (Jacob Blake) was shot seven times by police officers (leaving him paralyzed from the waste down) and two people later lost their lives in a protest as a result of gunshot wounds inflicted by a 17 year old (Kyle Rittenhouse).
I watched both the FOX News and the MSNBC accounting of the events. It was hard to believe that both networks were reporting on the same sequence of events.
- FOX seemed to think that Kenosha was a war zone of the Democrat's making (complete with continuously looping footage of burning cars and looting). One FOX news commentator even suggested that things were so bad in Kenosha that Rittenhouse had to shoot the two people to help the police maintain order.
- MSNBC emphasized that a white police officer shot a Black person with kids in the car watching and showed video of Rittenhouse strolling casually past police with an assault weapon slung over his shoulder (and the police didn't intervene).
Whatever it is, it seems to be tearing our country apart. I will explore this (and more) but first, let's turn the clock back to about 1980 and see how we got here.
The Golden Age of TV News
For a period of about 25 years, Dan Rather of the CBS Evening News was one of the "big three" news anchors, along with Peter Jennings and Tom Brokaw. These three stalwart newscasters capped a long tradition of venerable news reporting which included Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, David Brinkley and several others that Americans had learned to trust over the years as reliable news sources.
Trust was indeed the name of the game for the CBS Evening News, and the fact that people implicitly believed the words coming from Mr. Rather's mouth was worth billions of dollars of advertising revenue to the network. CBS execs fully understood that any loss of credibility from viewers would mean immediate loss of advertisers and a crumbling business.
In 2005, Mr. Rather presented a somewhat controversial piece on 60 Minutes regarding George W. Bush's Vietnam-era service - one that did not show Mr. Bush in a good light. After the story ran, it came out that the sources were not fully authenticated and Dan Rather was quickly forced to leave the anchor desk as a result. In the judgment of CBS execs, even 25 years of building audience trust through solid reporting could be erased by a single not-well-authenticated story regarding a popular president.
Trust in news reporting used to be the thing that counts. And trust was firmly rooted in truth. Truth would always prevail - sooner or later - given that there were at least two other news networks who would not hesitate to fact check a competitor and report on it. And in 2005, CBS execs knew this and sacrificed the career of a 25 year anchor because of it.
2020: Outrage Outranks Trust
Today, Mr. Rather would be fired for NOT running the partially authenticated story about the president. Maybe the story would not need to be authenticated at all.
Such a story on cable news in 2020 would surely generate plenty of outrage - for both supporters of the president and his detractors. Unlike in 2005, network execs and advertisers today would surely be thrilled to see the eyeballs of enraged viewers glued to the screen, regardless of whether the sources were authenticated or not.
In 2020, an enraged viewer is an engaged viewer. Engaged viewers will come back again and again for more. Network ratings will increase, and profits will follow, making everyone in the front office happy - and rich.
What happened to trust? Well, it doesn't matter anymore if people don't trust the news anchor or that sources are not well authenticated. Everyone has a video camera in their pocket and there is always someone filming. No authentication needed. No trust needed, it's right there in front of your eyes. Once you've seen it, you'll believe it. But, what about "fake" videos, or videos from one time and place that are presented as if they are current? Or, what about "experts" that are paid to present their opinions? Shouldn't these all be authenticated? Don't we still need trust?
Oh, and heaven help the folks that get their news from Facebook and Twitter, which are even more efficient than cable news at getting your blood boiling. Machine learning based algorithms (such as collaborative filtering) will select stories and posts that are most engaging to you - given what they know about you. And Facebook and Twitter know quite a lot about you. It's kind of like you having a very personalized and automated network exec making decisions and creating a bespoke news feed just for you. Tailor made to set your emotions ablaze. That way you will stay glued to your screen for quite a while and keep returning to it for another hit of dopamine.
No wonder everybody is pissed off!
Alternative Facts
Road to Populism
- "the question is whether he will tone down his fiery populism now that he has joined the political establishment"
Consequences
- All the outrage that has been stoked by news reporting, social media algorithms and politicians trying to gain advantage will inevitably cause yet more outrage, more polarization, more hatred, more "us vs. them".
- Some are predicting a second civil war although I think that threat is way overblown. It is at this point a very remote possibility, but one that would have dramatic impact on all of our lives.
- Armed vigilante groups are forming and taking matters into their own hands during protests - with the consequence of people getting shot.
- It has become OK to hate people that don't share your political views. As a consequence, friendships are broken, families are separated.
- Extreme polarization and hate in the population are bound to have economic consequences. Productivity surely will be impacted if you need to work with people you hate. Problem resolution will suffer. And so forth.
- It is now OK - fashionable even - to ignore advice from experts.
- Consequences of ignoring advice from experts are usually obvious but several good examples are presented to us courtesy of the Covid-19 pandemic:
- Wearing of masks and social distancing have become a political symbol instead of protecting others from possible infection - with a high percentage of people refusing to wear them. A good percentage of the 180,000 people that have now been killed by Covid-19 could have been saved with higher usage of masks.
- People are taking (and advocating) medicines that haven't proven to be effective (e.g. Hydroxychloroquine). This exposes them to unnecessary side effects and depletes the supply for people that really need these drugs for on-label usage.
- There is a higher possibility of people not taking vaccines (when they come out) due to disinformation, which could lead to a lack of herd immunity in the population. The pandemic won't go away until this is addressed.
- Career paths in the sciences (soft and hard) may become less attractive to people, resulting in a long term drain of talent. If this happens the consequences to America would be extreme - we could lose our edge in high tech and finance fields for example.
- Conspiracy theories have become massively popular in the current environment. For example, QAnon has recently grown to millions of believers, many formally in splinter organizations or on Facebook groups. The FBI has classified QAnon and many other conspiracy organizations as national threats.
- Our president will likely continue to stoke the flames of anger with Twitter. Cities (such as Portland, Oregon) that are currently experiencing protests can easily be pushed into more and more violence with our chief executive's divisive tweets.
- Racist narratives can continue to exist and thrive in the current environment. The suppression of non-white people depends on the circulation of false facts and narratives that in any other environment would be viewed not only as tremendously hurtful and harmful but totally without merit.
- Credibility of the US on the international stage has already been damaged by our populism. Our ability to influence and control events on the international stage will continue to be eroded with consequences to our trade infrastructure and economy. The world is increasingly connected and countries that can leverage their comparative advantage economically will thrive at the expense of those that can't.
- Climate change is probably the biggest long term threat to the world. The United States is one of the biggest contributors to the warming of the climate. We will be significantly hindered in addressing climate change with a populist leadership and biased news organizations.
Very thought-provoking. Looking forward to figuring out how to turn some of this around. I'm betting part of the process is some of us, at least, doing a more intensive job of listening to, reading about what others of us, with different points of view are saying. Not the outrageous stuff. Not the intentionally provocative stuff. But underneath that level, the stuff that people consider really important as well as what they worry about every day.
ReplyDeleteYes I agree. More listening. I am not sure it changes the incentive structure for the news media organizations (or politicians for that matter) so they put less egregious stuff out though.
DeleteI also think that our ability to have substantive respectful conversations with people we disagree with has also suffered. Most of us now just avoid them which is too bad. I try to seek out people with positions different than I have but I have yet to (recently) have a good conversation with them. In the past this wasn't a problem.