What's News? Not What You Think
Television news, not social media, wins the prize as the contaminated turf most responsible for nurturing America's political tribalism
A new study from a group of Stanford, University of Pennsylvania Annenberg Center and Microsoft researchers fingers television news as the biggest culprit in the American spiral into tribalism and a dysfunctional democracy. But the big time business of broadcast and television news has done more than intensify the rancor as well as the ridiculousness of what passes for American politics today. It’s also changed the information people seek out and consume. And not for the better.
My “In the National Interest” column this week on Mediavillage.com examines the question of what Americans these days think is “the news” and why. Here’s the link.
https://www.mediavillage.com/article/whats-news-for-americans-its-not-what-you-think/
The executives who run the media giants that own the broadcast and cable news think their success is all about ratings. After all, they pump up advertising rates and revenues. What more needs to be said?
The media moguls should look at the researchers’ findings. They may not be a surprise but they’re powerful. And they lay responsibility for the country’s civic slide downhill right at their door.
Unfortunately, my University of South Carolina students poor critical reading skills and failure to distinguish 'fake news found on social media from legitimate news sources confirms our country's downhill civic slide.