April 28, 2009
Mmmm BLT. Wait, what?
The latest fuckery the press seems to be churning out is the horrible swine flu, presented as if it were the boogie man with no end in site. The truth is that annually about 35,000 people in the United States alone will die this year because of influenza. While this statistic isn’t sexy enough to sell papers or raise ratings, it is the fact. The topic could spark insightful conversations about immigration and the state of health care in America, but those aren’t sexy. The only people who are actually talking about immigration are Beck and Hannity. Unfortunately, I can’t discern what they are even saying because when their mouths open, all I hear is white noise. No one is talking about health care other then them reminding us of washing our hands and not sneezing on people. The latter will never happen in my house because my husband is somewhat of a kamikaze sneezer. There is no forwarning when that man sneezes and you’re lucky to escape its wrath with your mouth closed. (I am immune to this strange affliction because my brother suffers from it also)
The worst part about the media created uproar about “Swine Flu” is that it can actually be bad for the economy. During a press conference yesterday the director of homeland security and temperary director of the CDC were expressing relentlessly how the recent influenza outbreak should not be referred to as “swine flu.” The obvious reason is that American farmers of corn, soy, and pork could all be negatively effected. This is a 15 billion dollar industry that while facing the recent economic hardships, now has to deal with the perception that their products can result in the boogie man living in your closet. Does Wolf Blitzer give a shit? Absolutely not. He’s got 3 hours of airtime and god damn it, those crazy eyes alone won’t push the ratings higher. Last night local, national, and cable news anchors all used the term “swine flu” when reporting the story. Not one reminded the public that eating pork has nothing to do with catching the influenza. Why would they forgo reminding people that BLT’s are delicious and safe to eat? Well because the suffering of our farmers is sexy and does sell. It would also then spark an argument about the inevitable bailing out of farmers which also, is very sexy.
It is absurd to think that the media is clueless about their own impact on Americans. It is also absurd that they are not absolutely held to the fire for their own shoddy reporting. I’m not accusing the mainstream media of reporting false facts, but there is something to be said about the tone of said facts. You can say: “A Dingo ate my baby.” and “A DINGO ATE MY BABY!” in two completely different ways. The reporting on this issue has been fear mongering in its worst form that has led me to believe that not only are the terrorists of today already in America, but also in our televisions, radios, and newspapers.
April 27, 2009
You’reUsingThisWrong.com
(Note: for those of you who still don’t know what Twitter is, the easiest way to describe it is: Twitter is texting on the web. They are short, blurbs of text that you can send to as many people as want to listen to you)
This morning while watching my local news the anchor said: “Miss California dating Michael Phelps? Go to our web site to find out.” Michael Phelps relationship status is not fucking news, and frankly the statements itself is not news- it is a damn scavenger hunt (and unless I’m 12 and there’s a shiny new mint green scooter at the other end, it isn’t going to end well). This blatant lack of how to use technology was followed up by an anchor on one of the major networks morning news shows reporting “We will give you an sneak peek at the Exclusive Interview that we will show you later in the week.” Again, this isn’t news and now that I know it exists, I can simply go to YouTube and watch the full interview your intern uploaded this morning. At some point news networks need to realize that the big tease doesn’t exist anymore. If you dangle a headline in today’s society and don’t offer instant gratification for our brains, we will simply find someone else who’s covered it, and probably covered it better. It’s no secret that news organizations have simply no clue as to how to use technological advances, but the level of their ignorance bewilders me. (Maybe it is because I was raised in a house that by my senior year of high school, if I asked my parents a question and they weren’t sure of the answer, I was told to “Go Ask Jeeves.”)
There have been significant advancements in technology use in news media, but even major cable news networks like, CNN really have no clue. Sure they’re on Twitter, sure Rick Sanchez has a “daily conversation”, but that isn’t harnessing the awesomeness that is the Internet. Watching Rick read what “Frogman290 in PA” Facebooked about the economy is the equivalent of me watching my parents play Super Mario Brothers for the first time. They didn’t care about the game, or playing well as much as they wanted their two kids to think they were hip parents, and that shit didn’t work either. Twitter and other social networking applications could be used to actually break news stories that typically wouldn’t be available to its users. There are hundreds of thousands of journalists on Twitter and after they write a story, they twitter the link. I can follow a journalist in almost every country across the planet making the global news seem much more local. If Mr. Sanchez really wanted to impress me with applying Twitter and Facebook to reporting news I would hear about stories that hadn’t already been on that annoying news ticker all morning.
Here is a great example of misuse of technology. Recently CNN twittered a link to their story about the students in New York who have the swine flu (seriously CDC? “Swine Flu”). The people who did Twitter a reply pointed out that not only did the story not specify what swine flu is, but how it is contracted. CNN is simply regurgitating it’s bad reporting onto Twitter. Meanwhile, Google was busy with launching a way to actually track cases of swine flu globally via Google Maps. It’s not surprising that Google is on the cusp of most significant internet advancements, but it is a surprise that news organizations don’t mimic these advances as they apply to reporting the news. It isn’t hard to insert links of different stories to the location on a world map. Come on CNN! If you can create a hologram of Will.I.Am, you can certainly show a map with a hyperlink to a news story about the rising violence in the DR Congo.
What news organizations seemingly fail to put together is the fact that the first news organization that incorporates print, TV, and web into a one stop shop for news around the planet will win. It is potentially a big, lucrative win, and if you ask me, the smart money isn’t on an existing media outlet, but an existing technology outlet. My ten dollars is on Google.
Variety is the spice of life 