The same could be said for non-American media, but American media in particular always hops between different topics and only one at a time.
Take, for example, news surrounding the mustard orange man with a red hat. At first, the news was swirling about how he was elected for a second term despite being a felon, but eventually the media pretty much forgot about that and went to his stance on climate change (that is, he believes it doesn’t exist and thinks that oil and gas are the most amazing thing in the world, ever), then to the huge budget cuts (e.g. medicine, foreign aid, NASA), then to the ICE raids and military deployments in cities as “police”, and now to “the files”.
He is still a felon, still pushing for fossil fuels, still cutting funding for critical services (while increasing budget for his own benefit, like the rebuilding of the east wing of the white house to be glittery gold, military spending, fossil fuels industry…), still using ICE to raid the communities and families of both legal (including U.S. citizens, what the hell!) and “illegal” immigrants (nearly all of which don’t have a criminal record, don’t think 3 years olds are gang members…), and still using the military in various different cities as “police”.
Questioning orange man’s relation with bald egg man should be rightfully done, but why is the media practically ignoring everything else (esp. given that he was already convicted for doing similar acts as well as a bunch of other naughty stuff to do with money and government documents)
The American media can only latch onto one “hot” topic at a time and it’s infuriating. You go to any of the news about orange man right now and it’s all about non-Sonic billionaire eggman. The public is not as “one brain cell” as the media, but still, most people in the U.S. usually latch on to one thing only (whether it’s ICE, the budget cuts, or the files, ESPECIALLY the files, it may as well be a copypasta at this point)
Similar could be said for big non-orange topics too, like on Israel (their invasion and genocide in Gaza, settlement of the West Bank, bombings of Lebanon, Syria, and now the “scary” proposal that - gasps - mentions a Palestinian state, etc.), Russian invasion of Ukraine, etc.
Why is the American media like this? Same could be said for all media, but American media in particular seem to always be tunnel visioned to one issue at a time. The American public also seem pretty tunnel visioned to a single issue, though not to the extent of the media companies
Note: I am not an American and do not, have never, and probably will never (due to the anti-immigrant administration) live in the US. I am not saying “haha Americans are dumb”, that wouldn’t be very nice. I just read a lot of news, some of which is American, and this has been a weird pattern I’ve been noticing and it drives me crazy.
I’m not an expert in media or journalism, so don’t take me seriously, but my speculation is that because American corporate media is for-profit and competing for attention, when something is new and getting attention, everyone competes to grab as much of the attention as possible (while it still generates interest), creating a fear of missing out for those who don’t try to monetize the new thing.
You see this in all kinds of markets, like - why were two big blockbuster movies about Napoleon produced and then published around the same time? The anticipation of a cash grab invites others to see if they can get in on it and siphon some of the cash for themselves. Producers all compete to capitalize on consumer fads in general, and fads can even be artificially generated, through manipulation of consumers (whether through celebrity or influencer endorsements, guerilla marketing, or just traditional advertisements).
Media is just another form of consumption and shows the same ebb and flow as other consumer markets.
I think you are confusing what the purpose of media is. You think the media exists to keep the public informed. When, in fact, the corporate media in the US exists to sell ad space. You are not the customer, you are the product. Just like a chicken farm doesn’t exist for the benefit of the chickens.
So, as such, the job of the media (especially TV media) is to grab your attention so thoroughly that you stay for the ads. This creates a fine line between reporting on hyped-up scandals and ignoring larger systemic faults that might make viewers themselves feel targeted. It means that once a particular narrative is seen to grab attention, everyone runs with it. However, that narrative can’t go too far in turning off people on one side of the issue unless the “news” outlet aims to only cater to the other side.
This also, to some extent, explains the sanewashing of the President that is currently going on. This President is a thin-skinned crybaby, and will whine about any little thing. And his supporters follow his every word like a new Messiah. News outlets who want to cultivate a broad viewership base (to sell them ads, of course) can only go so far with certain storylines before his followers change the channel.
Of course, the joke is on these news outlets. No matter how they try to comply in advance, the fascists will come for them eventually…
However, that narrative can’t go too far in turning off people on one side of the issue unless the “news” outlet aims to only cater to the other side.
This is literally why the media can seem so biased in the US, because to a large extent it is. They have a market audience they’ve decided to create content for, there is an intended audience. It’s not entirely what one side or the other would believe: biased to manipulate but more like biased in that they aim for a specific audience to serve ads to.
That’s just on the whole, I’m not saying Fox or Newsmax doesn’t exist for the sole purpose of keeping Republicans in power.
Media does not find or aim for a specific market. They create it through propaganda. This is not media catering to groups, it is media creating groups. This is the feedback loop. While there may have been some original audience to cater to at some mythical time we are far beyond that now.
It’s the 24h news cycle. Most news sources are battling for your attention/clicks every day and if they keep digging into a story that people already know, they’ll get less clicks. It has to be new or it just gets scrolled past. This isn’t unique to america. It’s everywhere. Even here on lemmy.
Steve Bannon has recognized this and weaponized it for Trump with his ‘flood the zone’ approach. Keep blasting new headlines and nothing will really stick.
I’d argue this is why the government shutdown and the Epstein files are so politically important.
If the government is shut down, all the new things are just different ways in which the government shutdown is breaking stuff. No healthcare. No SNAP. Furloughed workers. Airports without air traffic control. It was a rut for Republicans since the 24hr news cycle couldn’t move past the shutdown. Then Democrats went and handed them a ladder because they’re abysmal at doing politics.
And the Epstein files play into the conspiracy brain that has been cultivated in the right wing mind for so long. 24hr news cycle moving on from the story feels like the media trying to bury the story, which feeds into that conspiracism even more. And since this isn’t a made up conspiracy theory, right wingers can’t control the narrative as well as they usually do. There’s a reality to run up against. Everyone already knows who Epstein was and what he did. Trump is obviously implicated. And the House leader has shut down the entire House to prevent the Epstein files from making any progress towards a public release. That obviously feeds into the conspiracy that the files are damning and powerful people are working together to cover it up. I think Marjorie Taylor Green recently announced she’s quitting her current public office role as a result of backlash from wanting to see the Epstein files released and fighting with Trump over it. These are wedge issues that don’t work in Republicans’ favor.
Every media site has dozens of articles released every day. You noticing only a few of the topics is a you thing.
Somewhat. It’s definitely not just OP, he clearly can hold two ideas at once since he made this post. But it is a form of ignorance we perpetuate. Populaces who can be kept on one topic at a time are REALLY easy to keep subservient.
All of American media is owned by right wing men or right wing aligned mega corporations. They are here to entertain and perpetuate propaganda. That’s it.
They need to still keep up the appearances of being news organizations but they are all entertainment companies now.
Most media is owned by a few people…
ignoring everything else (esp. given that he was already convicted for doing similar acts as well as a bunch of other naughty stuff to do with money and government documents)
I mean… the courts already gave him a pass… that’s old news, people won’t watch and they wint make money. (and also, again, most media is controlled by those few people at the top)
The American media can only latch onto one “hot” topic at a time and it’s infuriating.
Not unique to Americans. Chinese people, particularly nationalists (by “nationalist”, I mean as in the ideology, not the 国民党 (Kuomingtang) party) are constantly talking about Taiwan and sometimes Japan… like… I don’t ever hear people talk about internal issues…
That’s how propaganda works, every government is trying to control their people through propaganda, but the less-democratic ones are doing it more successfully, the less democratic the country is, the more powerful the propaganda is. They use these single issue to distract from the real everyday issues like cost of living, labor rights, etc…
(Note: I’m Chinese American)
Thata what focus means.
If you’re spliting your focus onto several things, you’re not actually focusing anymore.I’m not sure what you expect here. It’s Ike asking why you’re not singing two songs at the same time. They are individual issues and news moves on to other individual issues.
my (uneducated) guess is some combination of catering to degraded attention spans, intentional manipulation of that degraded attention by malicious actors, and somehow it’s more profitable for the media companies to do news like this
Because the average human can only focus on one issue at a time.
Yes totally unique to America /s
I did mention that non-American news are similar, but the American ones in particular are very on the nose when it comes to this.
