Business of News

Sometimes, it's fair to say that media men are terrible human beings.  They are the ones that speed down a
hostage situation, cross their fingers, and pray it is still on. That's got to be a top-of-the-hour video or a banner photo.

I like reading up on the website Overheard in the Newsroom.  It features discussions among reporters, producers, editors, news directors, and so on.  The exchanges are mostly funny, even witty.  They are also pathetic, sarcastic, and painfully true.

For example, here is an editor's reaction after a reporter has filed a story of a teenager who shot his
mother: "We found our Mother's Day story." (www.overheardinthenewsroom.com)

Hallmark would be so pissed.  But that is good TV, no matter what.  It's sad, of course.  But it's got a nice
spin,  it's timing is a story in itself, and it's got the element of intrigue.

Media is going to run this story and people are going to care about it.  That's the drill.

This is what Noam Chomsky calls propaganda.  This is achieved through media's power to set the agenda.  It's like going into a movie house and be held hostaged for 10 minutes watching trailers of movies "you should see." In short, media tells you what is important.

Basing from the US media, Chomsky views major media organizations around the world as businesses that cater to a specific propaganda. News is then reduced to commodities that must sell and must satisfy a purpose.

Just like anything else, media has got to be owned by "someone."  I think that to say everything must work around that fact is looking at things at a very myopic point of view.

Media organizations have built-in biases. True.  It is through these biases that the news is structured. Chomsky mentioned emphasis, framing, filtering of information, and so on as ways on how media serve a specific propaganda. 

Newsrooms in the country sit down in story conferences everyday.  That is not a walk in the park, I assure you.  Stories are selected, angled, framed, and edited. When a news team goes to air, it has ratings, competition, advertisers, and possibly owner concerns coming out of its ears.  Every. Single. Day.

But on top of these, journalists are aware that to be taken seriosly by viewers, competitors and advertisers, they should deliver excellent content.  Their stories should matter.  Their stories must inform, empower, and amuse. 

In that way, they survive as an entity.  And as a bonus, they also get to their jobs.

It's still business, people.  And that is not exactly a bad thing.