The Overproduction of Truth

Arc Digital Editor Berny Belvedere bemoaned recently that The Hill was quotpumping out a trillion stories per dayquot many of which weren39t quotremotely newsworthyquotamp160 He chose to pick on The Hill but he could have just the same singled out just about anyone else in the online media spaceamp160 What triggered Belvedere this time was the story that former Attorney General Jeff Sessions had remarked that the current Attorney General William Barr has quotdone wellquot in the roleamp160 For a political publication to write a story about one Attorney General commenting on another certainly passes the smell test for what might be considered quotnewsquot but it probably isn39t quotnewsworthyquot a distinction that is arguably quite meaningfulStories along these lines which flood our iPhones and televisions are endlessamp160 Kayleigh McEnany the National Press Secretary for President Trump39s reelection campaign remarked that ordinary women quottune outquot Alyssa Milanoamp160 That was a headlineamp160 Megan Rapinoe the cocaptain of the US women39s national soccer team made clear she would not visit the White House while President Trump occupied it but she would accept an invitation from Representative Alexandria OcasioCortez to visit Capitol Hillamp160 That clogged up part of a news cycleamp160 Andrew Yang didn39t wear a tie during night two of the first Democratic debatesamp160 Same thingamp160 They are indeed stories about politics but creating a news environment where these stories compete with stories about more substantive issues probably has some consequencesFirst of all the pressure to churn out stories isn39t too helpful for the journalists themselvesamp160 The burnout rate in the profession is high and the pressure of following all of the goingson spending so much time focused on mundane events rather than important ones and filing story after story can take their tollamp160 Journalist Sara Coello was quoted in the Columbia Journalism Review describing how there were record days when she had to put out seven stories for her job at the Dallas Morning Newsamp160 Now if journalists are churning out story upon story they are likely not doing other things like reading versing themselves in policy or just taking a step back and thinking about the big picture of thingsAs the IranianAmerican journalist Kambiz Tavana said quotSadly most mainstream media journalists do not read these daysamp160 Being on Twitter does not qualify as reading where sensation and clickbait have taken overquotamp160 But with the output required by many writers how would they even have timeamp160 Broadcast journalism might be a bit different but it seems to have penetrated the entire industry such as when Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff the authors of The Coddling of the American Mind were interviewed on CBS This Morningamp160 The hosts of the program when they appeared to go off script would only allude to topics covered in the book39s first couple of pages something painfully obvious to anyone who might have actually thumbed past the first three pages of Part ISecondly it creates a situation where journalists are writing sometimes at length on topics they don39t know a whole lot aboutamp160 This was alluded to in Daniel Kolitz39s New Republic Piece quotIn Search of Generation Zquot when the author describes being tasked with contacting a number of prominent evolutionary biologistsamp160 When his questions to the scientists revealed his lack of knowledge of the subject one scientist called him out and Kolitz admitted that he quotwas in fact totally ignorant about how evolution worksquotamp160 This is a far cry from Erwin Schramp246dinger39s observation that one quotis usually expected not to write on any topic of which he is not a masterquotAnd then there39s the whole issue of when consumers start to take notice such as Belvedere and his Twitter followers didamp160 There39s little that39s appealing about creating an environment where if everything is news then nothing is newsamp160 Keep up with it or be left behind in favor of the media companies that are producing greater numbers of storiesamp160 At present though this is the mindset that is the dominant oneamp160 This model in fairness is what finally brought The New Yorker and The Atlantic to profitability after years in the redamp160 However critics have suggested that churning out more stories about popular topics like Cecil the Lion though more lucrative at least for now detracted from the quality of these publicationsIt is all of course indicative of a climate where page views are kingamp160 But as another column suggested this environment may be subject to changeamp160 In the near future it is certainly possible that metrics other than page views or a reexamination of the arguably disproportionate focus given to quantitative metrics entirely may begin to carry the dayamp160 In the meantime it39s not the journalists who are at faultamp160 This idea of the overproduction of truth is something for editors publishers and those higher up in the chain to sit with especially if readers begin to associate their publication with passing off the irrelevant as newsworthyAll the while churning out news in volume rather than with discretion seeps into the quality of our minds and the collective consciousness of our societyamp160 Shakespeare is of course still lining library bookshelves but we39re busy scrolling through Snapchatamp160 So perhaps it39s time to leave the occasional quasinews story still on the whiteboard particularly if no one in the newsroom knows a whole lot about the topic to begin with or as Wittgenstein implored quotWhereof one cannot speak thereof one must be silentquotClick the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet 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The Overproduction of Truth

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Erich J. Prince

"About That with Carl Mayer": Involved Media Connected Audience Fall 2024 Report (Episode 5) - By Carl Mayer

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The Overproduction of Truth

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Erich J. Prince

"About That with Carl Mayer": Involved Media Connected Audience Fall 2024 Report (Episode 5) - By Carl Mayer

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