To reveal a bit of personal information, I have a 21-month-old toddler running around the house these days. She’s an absolute cutie. And if you know anything about toddlers, you know that they continually surprise you with their attempts at using new words. While this is exciting and amusing, it’s not without its annoyances as well. Once they figure a word out, they continue to blurt it out with excessive pride in their assimilating into mom and dad’s world.
Well, mine lately has taken to the term “Uh Oh”. She falls down she says “Uh Oh”; she drops her sippy cup and “Uh Oh”; she looks out the window and says “Uh Oh”; she clicks a ball point pen and says “Uh Oh”. You get the point. Everything now is “Uh Oh”. It’s cute and innocent, but also annoying because as it is your charge to look after this child you are still obliged to turn your head quickly, or run in from the other room, or rush to her side to see what the “Uh Oh” is. The phrase is meant to be an alarming thing, and to the extent that it evokes a response from mom and dad, it has become her favorite means of getting our attention; she is able to exercise a modicum of control over us with this effective wolf cry. I mean, God forbid she says “Uh Oh” and we ignore it to find she’s stabbed the dog, or Picasso’d the walls in poop. Certainly there are varying degrees of inflection in the “Uh Oh”, but no matter how innocent the cry, you still ignore it at your peril.
As I was sitting around listening to Little Miss Wonderful “Uh Oh” around the house, I couldn’t help but juxtapose her with the U.S. news media. A strange comparison you think? Well, not to the erudite intellectual… ahem. The media uses the “Uh Oh” day in and day out without fail; it gets your attention and gets you tuning in. You avoid it at your peril (so they would have you believe). Like my daughter, it is their favorite phrase and instrument of control over their audience.
Now, some reading this will say, “Duh, that’s what they’re supposed to do”. Of course, what relatively intelligent human is not on to their game? But has anybody else noticed that the media’s inflection in their “Uh Ohs” has grown increasingly alarming? From the financial crisis to unemployment to the auto bailout to the environment to swine flu, they certainly have had their fair fodder for sounding the alarms lately. While I don’t want to jump on the anti-fear-mongering bandwagon (that dead horse has been savagely beaten), it’s hard not to notice how headlines are being offered these days. It has become all too common to see a host of tragic, traumatic, and dramatic headlines get top billing while the potential mustard seeds and rays of light get pushed to less prominent positions. Those of us looking for more favorable fare are left to search for the silver lining.
In the end they do it because it hooks the biggest percentage of fish every time. What does it say about us as a society that we respond to tragedy in this way? If you are honest with yourself (and I know you are), you know that people tune in to dark headlines not out of any degree of empathy, but more for the spectacle it provides: dare it be said, tragedy is entertaining. I can’t help but think that the reason has something to do with how we deal with our own lives on a day-to-day basis. Seeing something or somebody that is in a worse off position than ourselves somehow gives us a sense of relief that our lives aren’t that bad. I used to call it the Jerry Springer Effect – people tune into Springer to see the hilarity and outrageousness of character presented and then turn to their colleagues and friends and say, “I would never!” It in some way validates our station and circumstances. While there are any number of arguments and explanations for the phenomenon, it still leaves me shaking my head.
But, for the media toddlers it’s their best gig. They’ll “Uh Oh” their way into our living rooms, car radios, and home pages every day because they know our heads will snap to attention to make sure there’s no poop on the wall.
Well, mine lately has taken to the term “Uh Oh”. She falls down she says “Uh Oh”; she drops her sippy cup and “Uh Oh”; she looks out the window and says “Uh Oh”; she clicks a ball point pen and says “Uh Oh”. You get the point. Everything now is “Uh Oh”. It’s cute and innocent, but also annoying because as it is your charge to look after this child you are still obliged to turn your head quickly, or run in from the other room, or rush to her side to see what the “Uh Oh” is. The phrase is meant to be an alarming thing, and to the extent that it evokes a response from mom and dad, it has become her favorite means of getting our attention; she is able to exercise a modicum of control over us with this effective wolf cry. I mean, God forbid she says “Uh Oh” and we ignore it to find she’s stabbed the dog, or Picasso’d the walls in poop. Certainly there are varying degrees of inflection in the “Uh Oh”, but no matter how innocent the cry, you still ignore it at your peril.
As I was sitting around listening to Little Miss Wonderful “Uh Oh” around the house, I couldn’t help but juxtapose her with the U.S. news media. A strange comparison you think? Well, not to the erudite intellectual… ahem. The media uses the “Uh Oh” day in and day out without fail; it gets your attention and gets you tuning in. You avoid it at your peril (so they would have you believe). Like my daughter, it is their favorite phrase and instrument of control over their audience.
Now, some reading this will say, “Duh, that’s what they’re supposed to do”. Of course, what relatively intelligent human is not on to their game? But has anybody else noticed that the media’s inflection in their “Uh Ohs” has grown increasingly alarming? From the financial crisis to unemployment to the auto bailout to the environment to swine flu, they certainly have had their fair fodder for sounding the alarms lately. While I don’t want to jump on the anti-fear-mongering bandwagon (that dead horse has been savagely beaten), it’s hard not to notice how headlines are being offered these days. It has become all too common to see a host of tragic, traumatic, and dramatic headlines get top billing while the potential mustard seeds and rays of light get pushed to less prominent positions. Those of us looking for more favorable fare are left to search for the silver lining.
In the end they do it because it hooks the biggest percentage of fish every time. What does it say about us as a society that we respond to tragedy in this way? If you are honest with yourself (and I know you are), you know that people tune in to dark headlines not out of any degree of empathy, but more for the spectacle it provides: dare it be said, tragedy is entertaining. I can’t help but think that the reason has something to do with how we deal with our own lives on a day-to-day basis. Seeing something or somebody that is in a worse off position than ourselves somehow gives us a sense of relief that our lives aren’t that bad. I used to call it the Jerry Springer Effect – people tune into Springer to see the hilarity and outrageousness of character presented and then turn to their colleagues and friends and say, “I would never!” It in some way validates our station and circumstances. While there are any number of arguments and explanations for the phenomenon, it still leaves me shaking my head.
But, for the media toddlers it’s their best gig. They’ll “Uh Oh” their way into our living rooms, car radios, and home pages every day because they know our heads will snap to attention to make sure there’s no poop on the wall.
2 comments:
Your remarks are spot on, however timeless. since the inception of "corporate media", the phenomenon of what sells rules. The constant competition between networks, cable, radio and internet breed who can shock the reader in order to garner market share, this being not for ratings per say, but more importantly to the provider, the advertising revenue. This phenomenon of late, has transcended not just news for shock value, but organizations who are content to cater to a certain demographic or political lean in order to rule their niche and secure residual income.
I enjoyed your observation of the media, but I would add another. Just as you would appreciate your daughter alerting you to poop on the wall with a well timed 'uh oh,' I welcome the media alerting me to poop on the wall in the most attention grabbing method possible, as long as there is, in fact, poop on the wall, hitting the fan, or otherwise. My problem with the popular media is that all too often, they either make poop up, or show me poop on the wall and tell me its artwork and should be accepted by all. Better yet, it seems there is a push to force poop onto the walls of all Americans in the form of health care, CAFE Standards, Cap and Trade, and more with little to no objective criticism or time for alternative solutions to be put forth. Where is the loud, mainstream 'uh oh' being sounded other than on a handful of outlets that the toddler media attempt to marginalize on a daily basis. Call me conservative, but I like my poop in the toilet. Thousands of years of prior human experience prompted us to the current accepted system for poop. Poop on the wall has been tried before and it just makes everyone sick and unhappy in the long run. So I suppose I have just expanded your metaphor from the uh oh, toddler media to poop governments. It kinda fits don’t it?
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