On Media's 'Culture War' farming...

[Twisted Crow]

So, I wanted to link this in the heated discussions in the 2022 Elections thread, but I feel that this deserves its own topic. Because quite honestly, that thread seems to be all over the place. I'd rather not cause any further distractions there.


So, I just discovered Russell Howard on YouTube. While I found this funny, it also intrigued me. Because this has been something that I've been arguing on for years. Particularly during Trump's presidency, I've made a more devoted effort into digging into this cycle of "Culture Wars". Even reflecting on the fact that I've been one of the rubes that bought into this crap. It gives me some relief in that we may seem to be recognizing what we are doing with media and why. Now, I would argue that now we basically have these 'culture wars' because we've allowed the media (and ourselves) to essentially manufacture this sort of stuff by using 'polar-politics' as fuel for the flames. I'm of the belief that much of these are now just that. I believe that we don't dig for truth so much anymore when reporting the facts, instead... we just drama-farm, yo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U26-D-7Ey2w

[Twisted Crow]

Actually, that video might have to be linked or spoiler-tagged. Apologies, if that's the case!

[Oniya]

Being honest here, I find that a lot of headlines (especially in my 'news app' that Windows has so thoughtfully provided to me) are click-bait.  Media wants eyes on ads, and the only way they can manage that is by waving some scandal or other around.  At this point, if I see something that looks inordinately appealing, I Google about half the words in the headline and aim for places like Reuters or APNews.

(Unless it's something from Cheezburger, in which case I know exactly what I'm in for.)

Actually, that video might have to be linked or spoiler-tagged. Apologies, if that's the case!

Russell Howard appears to be 42, according to his online bio.  If that's him in the thumbnail, you're fine.

[Twisted Crow]

Ah, I revisited the "Does the national anthem...?" joke, and caught the upper-right corner (at about 5:41 - 5:44 into the video).

The rest of it seemed fine but I forgot about that when I posted the link to it.

[MattMatt]

Being honest here, I find that a lot of headlines (especially in my 'news app' that Windows has so thoughtfully provided to me) are click-bait.  Media wants eyes on ads, and the only way they can manage that is by waving some scandal or other around.  At this point, if I see something that looks inordinately appealing, I Google about half the words in the headline and aim for places like Reuters or APNews.

I think Oniya is hitting the nail on the head. Media (that fuels rage) want clicks on there site. They main thing allot media cares about is profit. More clicks = more ads seen = more profit. Which of these two gets more clicks: a nice article that indicates that things are going well or an article about how a certain behavior is racist? The second is that people pay more attention to bad things. The media knows this and capitalizes on it

[RedRose]

Titles are misleading. I used to be addicted. Now, heh. Can't be bothered.

[Vekseid]

Of 'non-right' news sources I've found CNN, The Guardian, and the Independent to be the absolute worst offenders relative to their reach.

CNN has been fabricating video for decades, it is infuriating. I have friends who were fucked over by them. What they said on camera is not what got played in CNN's reporting, and definitely not what they meant. Another person I knew did this same work for NBC.

It has actually gotten better recently, if you can believe that. The ubiquity of video and forensics have made it more difficult to pull this bullshit off. People know about deepfakes. People know about AI voice work. The clever editing that came before was not so well known.