I really do love the Media. It’s amazing sometimes how I think they get away with the extreme “Spin” of what they apply to anything – which can often distort some kind of “Once Truth” into something extremely misleading that one could argue is a form of “Lying”.
Don’t get me wrong, I totally understand why the Media do it. If anything, if you are walking down the street and a newspaper stand in a shop says “Clear Blue Skies”, “Times are Good” or something else nice like “Year 12 Students Grades are Up” I would just smile and keep walking my merry way.
However (as I am a sucker for drama), if it says “Alien Fleet Orbiting Earth”, ” Global Warming Hitting Sydney Tomorrow”, or “Scientific Study Says Coffee Drinkers Die Young” I would honestly get sucked in – and probably run in and buy that paper.
One of my old colleagues worked as a Marketing Manager for a Major Newspaper and she told me this amazing fact:
– The more negative, scary and dangerous the headline – the more papers you sell that day.
In a way, many people “Blame the Media” – but then how can you? If people (like myself) are addicted to drama – then why shouldn’t they act in a way to better their own interests?
One of my favourite topics lately has been the “Rise of China” and how it has been spun by the Media in a way to really scare us. I do honestly click on the articles and get slightly sucked into the story as I probably am still suck in “Cold War” mentality at some sub-conscious level.
I remember when I was growing up, it wasn’t China in those days. It was Japan! They were the “Rising Power” who was just taking over everything and they were a big force to deal with. Even though this was before my time, it was the “Soviet Union” as the big power trying to take us over and I would imagine before that it was WWII type of days.
I also remember (I think it was about 5-8 years ago), they were talking about how the US Dollar is collapsing and that the Euro was going to be the new world’s Reserve Currency.
That is very interesting – the Euro hasn’t done too well lately!
I am finding the power of the Media lately only seems to be increasing. Many articles are dominated today about China with inferences as to the “Threat” as to which they pose to us, how bad it’s going to be, how “Communism” is taking over the world yet again and how we all need to be completely terrified as when the US becomes the world’s second biggest economy – it’s going to be all over for us.
Extremely few of the articles are actually focusing the fact that Western Companies expansion in China is often in double digit growth and they always “ignore” the upsides the rest of the world is benefiting from.
After All – Drama Sells Right? Sad, but it’s just the way society works.
One of the the big things I have learnt lately, is that in today’s world it’s getting so much harder to really “Find the Facts” and I have had this strange feeling lately that someone (or some group of people) is trying “Extra Hard” to control what we think.
I think the big key is to keep an open mind – but just remember, just because it’s in a Newspaper it’s not necessarily true!
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