Culture of Fear

[L Gilbert]

Lots of 'feel good' stories are just that, they make one feel good.

Maybe the media should be controlled to the point that, they 'have' to show a positive
and good happening for the day, along with their miserable stories, which they thrive on,
and we are fed a diet which contains so much bad stuff, that we can often begin to
believe that not much good happens at all.

It would be nice to know that the media are crawling all over each other to find out
great events that go on each and every day, as they practically kill each other to be 'first' to show 'vicious violence', the worse it is, the more they fight for it.

They say they show us 'what' we want to see, how do they know that, when they
don't show positive events.

They show up on occasion with a 'cute' puppy story, or something similar, but not often,
would like to see good stories, that show the goodness of people in general.

Yeah. It'd be nice to see more of that kind of coverage.
Um, maybe there is just too many news sources. Or perhaps people don't have time to read anymore and tv is what they think is the best source for news they have.

 

[L Gilbert]

Over the last few days the bus incident has been the most viewed content on CNN. If you were in CNN's shoes why wouldn't you publish push the worst that people can be? It's what viewers want to read/see and it makes money.

Sure. It's sensational, that's why, and they will editorialize the heck out of the rest of the news just to air that. People in general use it for entertainment. A few people, me included, prefer not to hear about that for weeks on end and read news about other stuff.
McLuhan (I think) said once that "celebrity has become news. The rest is entertainment". I think he was dead right.

 

[lone wolf]

You might be true about the "Youth's gone bad" theory..... but why all of a sudden when I was young it was always murder and assult cases involving adults, and now it's mostly youths?
What reason can you think of that would have suddenly switched the two? Because the media wants rating and they feel youth criminals are the ticket?

Lack of parental guidance maybe? After the kid is out of the house, parents have no say basically, but when the kids are still in the house and are beating & killing other kids, then I think there must be a connection.

There always is that but how do you plead bias when the newsmedia is so selective about which reports they cover and which they don't? It's freedom of speech, remember? They have the right to editorialize their content and which articles they air or don't. I found the best reporting are usually from indies. (Um, independent news sources). A lot of them have stuck to proper journalism rather than editorializing.

We're sort of from the Leave it to Beaver era where kids are supposed to be innocent. Juvenile delinquents, like pregnant teenagers, were a hush-hush thing. The AM radio news or the two TV networks didn't want to upset blue-haired little old church ladies.

Somewhere along the way, we grew up. All those church ladies are gone and the news has to find fresh stories to be shared among AM and FM and twenty TV networks. In that same time, a lot of the kids went to college because all the smokestack industries their fathers used to work in were gone. Now, we have a lot of psychologists and lawyers who have to be fed - so they create a market.

Somewhere along the way, too, the majority of the population became younger than us. Once, it was those fighting feuding drunken grown-ups. Now, as old farts, it's them danged uppity kids and the young offerners thingy that protects them from the spanked arses we used to get.

 

[scratch]

Sure. It's sensational, that's why, and they will editorialize the heck out of the rest of the news just to air that. People in general use it for entertainment. A few people, me included, prefer not to hear about that for weeks on end and read news about other stuff.
McLuhan (I think) said once that "celebrity has become news. The rest is entertainment". I think he was dead right.

Didn't he also say the media was the tool?

 

[L Gilbert]

Actually I think it was, "The medium is the message".
But the newsmedia is a tool for propaganda, and I think propaganda is what we get and it isn't just for political means.

 

[typingrandomstuff]

Nothing to fear... It's another change... change of climate, wars, new leaders, new ideas, and the olympics

 

[typingrandomstuff]

All part of being a person in a crazy world. First I was convinced I am a scapegoat. Then, using the scapegoat's advantage, I found out what I need to know. When I am finding about what I need to know, I was confused. I did a lot of irrational and weird things. In the end, I will try to fix the irrationalities. Thank the guardians I didn't do those weird things. I am sorry for the confusion. Too much work.

 

[typingrandomstuff]

Sorry about that... Thank the guardians I didn't physically do those wrong things.

 

[L Gilbert]

Need a priest? We have one around here somewhere. Not sure if he has an online confessional, though. hehehe

 

[Praxius]

I don't think crime in general varies much. I think violent crime is up though. When my kids were in school we never heard of kids ganging up on and beating other kids to death. Same with my cousin's kids' schools in Vancouver.

Agreed. When I went to school, which was 1998 and earlier, if there was a fight, it was 1 on 1 and nobody ever really got seriously injured. Perhaps a Black Eye or a broken nose, but not to the extent it seems it is now a days, where venting anger and putting someone to the ground isn't enough anymore..... they have to make people suffer and be humiliated, all the while getting their buddies to take a few shots as well.

 

[Praxius]

There always is that but how do you plead bias when the newsmedia is so selective about which reports they cover and which they don't? It's freedom of speech, remember? They have the right to editorialize their content and which articles they air or don't. I found the best reporting are usually from indies. (Um, independent news sources). A lot of them have stuck to proper journalism rather than editorializing.

Well what I meant was more towards then the media starts throwing in their own opinions and 2 cents on what they're reporting, trying to make something viewed worse or better then just by the facts presented.

It's true they can report anything they want.... my concern is more so how they report it.

 

[Praxius]

Over the last few days the bus incident has been the most viewed content on CNN. If you were in CNN's shoes why wouldn't you publish and push the worst that people can be? It's what viewers want to read/see and it makes money.

Not to mention it happened in Canada, where most in the US think we're all goodie goodies and nothing usually happens, so when something like this happens, they're all over it, so they can take their own problems down a notch or two.

 

[Stretch]

Didn't he also say the media was the tool?

If it bleeds, it leads, surely you must realise that........

The news and truth are not the same thing.
~ Walter Lippman (1889-1974) ~






I feel sorry for the man that goes to bed after having read the newspaper, thinking he knows something of what's going on in the world.

 

[Stretch]

it all goes to keep the negative energy level up there.....that negative energy is whats working against us

 

[darkbeaver]

Fear sells cars, breakfast cereal and condoms. The use of fear has at no time in human history been made more readily accessable to the merchants, this is afterall the age of information, and we are informed of what we should fear. That informing begins our first day of school.

 

[scratch]

Fear sells cars, breakfast cereal and condoms. The use of fear has at no time in human history been made more readily accessable to the merchants, this is afterall the age of information, and we are informed of what we should fear. That informing begins our first day of school.

As I have said before it started with the advent of television.

 

[darkbeaver]

I don't think it did start with TV Scratch but it certainly was multiplied by the visual device. Fear has been injected into children and adults by radio and print well befroe TV. I do think TV has been the greatest fear tool but just not the first maybe eh.

 

[scratch]

I don't think it did start with TV Scratch but it certainly was multiplied by the visual device. Fear has been injected into children and adults by radio and print well befroe TV. I do think TV has been the greatest fear tool but just not the first maybe eh.

I'll go along with that, d.b.

 

[typingrandomstuff]

Fear: a tool for higher class to manipulate. Part of the manipulation tools of the society. Big deal. Overcoming fear is to do something without realization. Overcoming fear while you are distracted is the best indirect way. There are a lot of horrible fearful stuff. Most of them are created by enemies. Most enemies use people's unpleasant moments and suspense to make something fearful.