Why does bad news sell?

[SeaCat]

Doc's thread brings up an interesting question in my mind.

Why does bad news sell here in America?

Now I have my own ideas on this but I would like to hear your ideas/theories.

Cat

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Bad news sells everywhere. The real question is 'why do people take such ghoulish delight in the misfortunes of others?' and 'why do people just love to seem like they're more unfortunate than they really are?'

 

[DesertPirate]

I could make a comment about the far Left hate America first crowd, the ones that run NBC and it's chidren(MSNBC...). But there is a bit of that out there.

It's more like the local weather weenie who reports a thunderstorm withing a hundred miles and warns everyone in it's path, wheather it's dangerous or not. I think those guys get paid by the number of people they scare!
You ought to see the stores get wiped out of milk and bread when the words snow or ice are mentioned.

This is what they do and the news is no different.

Wonder if local weather could be declared a "Terrorist Organization"
*nods*

 

[3113]

Whether you love or hate Michael Moore, I think he makes an interesting point in "Bowling for Columbine" when he points out that American News and politics thrives on a climate of fear. This is not the case in many other countries, but it is very much so in the U.S. I don't know if this goes back to our puritan roots--where religion was based on fear of sin and so everyone was told to always be on the look out for doing wrong or wrong doing--or if it's more recent. If it has to do with the fact that fear motivates people to buy and vote for things better than anything else in the U.S., and so everything from politics to news to commercials takes advantage of that.

Any news channel proves that this is the case: they say "Are you in danger of...." (fill in the blank) "We'll have a report that could save your life!" And then, of course, they keep that report till the very end (so you watch the whole hour) and it usually turns out that the danger you're in is unlikely and the solution to the danger is fairly simple. But the scare tactic has been used to keep you watching. If you don't watch, the news says, something terrible will happen to you.

Likewise, the fear tactic gets used over and over again to get us to vote for people or things. "Family values will be lost if this law passes!" they say, and usually the implication in "family values" is that children are in danger, that they'll turn into monsters if this law goes on the books--even if the law has nothing at all to do with kids.

It's an effective tool. We scare easily.

 

[TE999]

It's an old newspaper expression: "If it bleeds, it leads."

The more lurid the headline, the more papers are sold. The history of journalisim is rife with endless coverage of murders, trials, disasters, exposures and muck raking.

Multiply that to a factor of 5 and you have TV journalisim. On both sides of the political aisle.

How does one explain the popularity of the National Enquirer, other than people love to read about misery, especially the miseries of those higher in the pecking order than they.

Human nature, plain and simple.

 

[trysail]

It works because people are astoundingly gullible.

I find myself asking why rubber-neckers insist on leering at traffic accidents, thereby accomplishing absolutely nothing other than snarling traffic.

There are times I don't much like humans.

 

[trysail]

...Likewise, the fear tactic gets used over and over again to get us to vote for people or things. "Family values will be lost if this law passes!" they say, and usually the implication in "family values" is that children are in danger, that they'll turn into monsters if this law goes on the books--even if the law has nothing at all to do with kids.

It's an effective tool. We scare easily.

Say, would this be a good time and place for me to mention the topic of the selling of the theory of anthropogenic global warming?

http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=547503

 

[voluptuary_manque]

I didn't see that.

 

[emap]

It's pretty simple, fear and sex are the biggest sellers of politicians and anything you could buy. Shock news on the other hand, has a different reason for it's popularity.

Most of the people who buy things like National Enquirer and watch the celebrity nonsense, are not happy with their own lives so they search out any cases of someone having a worse time of things than they are. So they can feel better about their own lives.

 

[oggbashan]

Quote from a local News Editor to illustrate news sense:

A trainee reporter was sent to cover a local wedding. She returned to the office early saying "I'm sorry. I haven't got a story. The bride decided not to come."

Og

 

[3113]

Say, would this be a good time and place for me to mention the topic of the selling of the theory of anthropogenic global warming?

Yes, it would, as you're using my example to make a false comparison. The fear mongering I'm talking about only works if you present fears that (1) don't require people to give up anything they really want to keep, (2) seem to have easy, one-stop solutions. Hence, people like you dismiss as fear mongering real problems, like global climate change, with real facts done by real scientists--but which require real work and sacrifice to solve--for faux ones that they think can be easily solved and require no more than, say, voting "no" on a law that won't affect them or buying a new alarm system for their house.

The effectiveness of using fear to motivate people only works if the fear presented comes with an easy solution ("The family that prays together stays together" for example--that's all you need to solve all family problems, prayer), and they will feel the fear even if they shouldn't and go for the solution even if it doesn't work, so long as the fear is easily understood and they're offered a magical way to make it go away.

People don't want to hear or listen to fears that require complex solutions, even if they're valid problems that we should rightly worry about.

I think that point, regarding fear mongering, is valid. Regarding climate change, you've made it quite clear with your monthly bumping of that thread you created, regarding the topic as propaganda, that there's no changing your mind on that topic, no matter what facts are presented. So I see no reason to jacking this thread any further off topic on that particular subject.

 

[DesertPirate]

Yes, it would, as you're using my example to make a false comparison. The fear mongering I'm talking about only works if you present fears that (1) don't require people to give up anything they really want to keep, (2) seem to have easy, one-stop solutions. Hence, people like you dismiss as fear mongering real problems, like global climate change, with real facts done by real scientists--but which require real work and sacrifice to solve--for faux ones that they think can be easily solved and require no more than, say, voting "no" on a law that won't affect them or buying a new alarm system for their house.

The effectiveness of using fear to motivate people only works if the fear presented comes with an easy solution ("The family that prays together stays together" for example--that's all you need to solve all family problems, prayer), and they will feel the fear even if they shouldn't and go for the solution even if it doesn't work, so long as the fear is easily understood and they're offered a magical way to make it go away.

People don't want to hear or listen to fears that require complex solutions, even if they're valid problems that we should rightly worry about.

I think that point, regarding fear mongering, is valid. Regarding climate change, you've made it quite clear with your monthly bumping of that thread you created, regarding the topic as propaganda, that there's no changing your mind on that topic, no matter what facts are presented. So I see no reason to jacking this thread any further off topic on that particular subject.

Hype of falsehoods is hype. Gore's marketing twits are better than the others.

 

[cloudy]

Hype of falsehoods is hype. Gore's marketing twits are better than the others.

And some are stuck in a time warp and will never alter their views, no matter how much evidence is presented to them and waved under their noses.

"None is so blind as those who will not see."

 

[lesbiaphrodite]

It's a fascinating question. Unfortunately, I do not have the answer as to why we are fascinated by the macabre, morose, maudlin in our news media and as a public. It's one more thing to add to my "I don't know why" and "I give up on trying to figure it out" lists.

At this juncture, I am so overwhelmed by the events currently transpiring on a global and national level that I can hardly muster the clarity of thought to get through a normal work day.

 

[3113]

Hype of falsehoods is hype. Gore's marketing twits are better than the others.

Hype of falsehood is hype, but this is not hype of falsehoods. Reputable scientists confirm the facts, and have presented those facts for people to read about and judge themselves. I didn't decide that climate change and the arguments that we're contributing to it were valid because of Gore's movie, I decided it because I examined the facts.

Hype is hype if it presents no facts or false facts--which can be proven by reputable scientists to be false. For example, a lot of people believe that there is a hell they should fear. Yet there are no facts to back this up. They are told that there is a simple solution to solving this fear of going to hell. Believe in god. Yet there are no facts that there is a god. This "hype" works so well that people go to church every sunday and give all their money to many a preacher telling them that only by doing as they say will they avoid hell. I consider that hype. Especially if the preachers are riding around expensive cars and living in big houses. I don't consider it hype if I can verify facts for myself and if people who make a living studying facts on a subject verify it.

Putting it another way: It's hype if my doctor tries to make me afraid of a something I don't have and sell me her own special vitamins at an exorbitant price. It's not hype of my doctor presents me with the results of blood tests--that I can have re-taken by another doctor to confirm--saying I have a disease, and tells me where I can buy reasonably priced, generic meds to help me live with that disease.

And once more, take your vitriol on the subject of climate change to Trysail's favorite thread. We're discussing why bad news sells here, and so far as I can see, the bad news of climate change has yet to sell much. If it did, we'd have cars over here, like in Europe, that get 50 miles to the gallon. The fear hasn't sold that well because its solution, giving up gas guzzlers, isn't one most Americans are ready to embrace.

 

[DesertPirate]

And some are stuck in a time warp and will never alter their views, no matter how much evidence is presented to them and waved under their noses.

"None is so blind as those who will not see."

Kind of like those that blame Bush for everything that has ever gone wrong?

 

[cloudy]

Kind of like those that blame Bush for everything that has ever gone wrong?

You've proved my point nicely, since I've never "blamed Bush for everything that has ever gone wrong."

 

[rgraham666]

Kind of like those that blame Bush for everything that has ever gone wrong?

And you blame liberals for everything that has gone wrong. What's the difference?

 

[trysail]

Yes, it would, as you're using my example to make a false comparison. The fear mongering I'm talking about only works if you present fears that (1) don't require people to give up anything they really want to keep, (2) seem to have easy, one-stop solutions. Hence, people like you dismiss as fear mongering real problems, like global climate change, with real facts done by real scientists--

... and which is labeled "sloppy science" by "real scientists," disputed by "real scientists" and called "not settled science" by "real scientists."

http://forum.literotica.com/showpost.php?p=28526451&postcount=143

 

[Selena_Kitt]

Problem: It's hard to control the masses in a democracy.

How to handle this problem? Exactly what 3113 mentioned: Fear. Breed a cult of fear within society, and you can steer the sheep where you want them, while still giving them the illusion of freedom.

Problem solved.

 

[cantdog]

Problem: It's hard to control the masses in a democracy.

How to handle this problem? Exactly what 3113 mentioned: Fear. Breed a cult of fear within society, and you can steer the sheep where you want them, while still giving them the illusion of freedom.

Problem solved.

But it has to sell.

I think every organism on the planet capable of avoiding threats coming to harm it will have a fairly high priority on detecting those threats. So if you want to capture the time of some house ape, tell him right off the bat that there's a threat coming. Chances are good he'll at least evaluate it.

Safety and security are important drives, say behavioral psychologists. Thus, fear sells.

 

[DesertPirate]

And you blame liberals for everything that has gone wrong. What's the difference?

That's where you blew it Rob. I have stated several times that the only solution to the problems in Washington is to vote against every incumbant for the next 6 elections. Replace every single one of the elitist, out of touch with reality, overpaid idiots of both partys.

The Constitution calls for a citizen legislature that goes to the Capitol, does their business, and then returns home to their "real" jobs. We are not supposed to have a permanent ruling class at any time.

Washington, DC inside the beltway is populated by a "thundering herd of dumbass"!

 

[DesertPirate]

You've proved my point nicely, since I've never "blamed Bush for everything that has ever gone wrong."

If you listed the Obama supporters on this site I would have described 90% of them. They can't give any credit to Him or the Republican Party. They will not accept that the Democrats are just as responsible for every problem we have.

All those spending bills that created the deficit were written and passed by both houses before being signed.

 

[cloudy]

If you listed the Obama supporters on this site I would have described 90% of them. They can't give any credit to Him or the Republican Party. They will not accept that the Democrats are just as responsible for every problem we have.

All those spending bills that created the deficit were written and passed by both houses before being signed.

So, tell me....what exactly should I give Bush credit for?

Besides the obvious, of course. Tell me something he's done that's good.

I'll wait.

 

[4glory6]

I think people gravitate to bad news to make them feel better about what they themselves have in life--perhaps not the best of what they would want but a lot better than some other people have to face.