Journalism/Media

CodeZTM · Post by **CodeZTM** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 3:11 pm

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/article ... Media-Myth

This is why I want to go into the realm of journalism, so I can write stuff like that.

I'd like your opinions one what the world of media has come to.

To Me: The media has become such a bother to any form of virtually ANYTHING. All it takes is some snotty reporter getting all hot and bothered over something, and going on the air ranting about it, for the masses of people to get all hot and bothered about it too. I did an informal survey like the author did (called a few friends, IM'ed, whatever) and about 5/10 thought video games were from Satan, 4/10 thought they were awesome, and 1/10 didn't give a royal rip. When I asked them why they felt that way, the first five said it was because they saw on the news how violent games like GTA and Mass Effect were, the next four said they experienced it and the last one is just a real jackass that I shouldn't have asked in the first place. :\

godix · Post by **godix** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 5:00 pm

Do you want our opinions on games or the media? Cause you ask about media but the majority of your post is games.

Anyway, the media sucks. Many MANY books and articles have been written on why. Short reason - a few decades ago it was viewed as a public service and profit wasn't the point of it all. These days it's a product that has to pull in the dough. So the news has gone more tabloid and more likely to produce fake controversial crap. That's what sells. Media is also far more shallow than it used to be. That's simply because you can pay a reporter to spend weeks or months research *A* story or you can pay him to make a couple calls and bang out a few hundred words in an afternoon. One of those methods is far cheaper than the other even though the end result kinda sucks.

These practices are catching up to the MSM though. The major nightly news shows have been losing viewers for at least a decade now. The 24 hours channels have gone to pandering to certain groups just to get viewers. National newspapers are in serious trouble and many local newspapers only sell because pet owners have to line their bird cages with something. The mainstream media sources are slowly killing themselves. It's kinda amusing to watch actually.

To some extent blogs are taking up the slack. They tend to specialize and cover stories that are only appealing to small groups so don't get picked up by MSM. The problem there is bloggers are almost always biased and usually don't even make a token attempt towards presenting or understanding the other side of an issue. Plus, of course, bloggers serve as proof you no longer need any talent, or even a knowledge of english, to write an article.

So the end result is there's more news media outlets than ever before but the coverage of news is far shallower than it used to be.

As far as games, they can be taken to far. The guy who plays WOW 20 hours a day needs some serious help. But provided you don't let a game take over your entire life they're fine. An amusing way to pass a spare hour here or there. Sure they're (mostly) solitary enjoyment but then again so is reading a book and no one complains about that.

CodeZTM · Post by **CodeZTM** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 5:44 pm

godix wrote:Do you want our opinions on games or the media? Cause you ask about media but the majority of your post is games.

Blarg. It was meant to be a discussion of the media, I was just using video games as a method of showing how far it has been degraded to.

Orwell · Post by **Orwell** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 7:28 pm

So I'm trying, I'm really trying, to participate in this topic. So, like any good participator in a topic, I begun by reading at the beginning. And that took a while, because the economist arrived and it's a lot sexier. So back to the beginning. Because that's where you start. At the beginning. And then I got to the part where it said /view/ and I realized, this does not end with "editorials/zeropunctuation" so I stopped reading there.

Then I realized, I don't have a life, and the only thing I have to look foward to is cleaning, so back to this article.

Then I finished the article, and the first thought was, why would you want to write that load of bollocks. Followed by thinking about a nap. Then I read the next line and thought, well, maybe, just maybe, there is some hope. My opinion on the media. Then maybe the media surrounding video games. Then I realize, anyone who's heavily influenced by the media is someone I rarely associate with. Following that up with a long post I delete because I realize it's ultimately irrelevant, I can only ask

What's the point your trying to make? When has story telling, whether factual or not, NOT meant to rile people up and charge their opinion? Are you arguing for a, according to ancient elders you have to open the ice chambers to cart out, for a return to when reporting was just facts and bias wasn't there? Because just picking which fact to report is biased, unless you include pretty much everything besides the kitchen sink, which may in fact be integral to the reporting, so even that's in. It has not come to anything it hasn't been already. There have certainly been dips into the piss pot and the white journalism went yellow, but, so what? The only reporting I care about is quarterly financial statements, how factual their held up to be, and whether I should be in the company, or the accountant for the company, to make the most money.

CodeZTM · Post by **CodeZTM** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 7:45 pm

What's the point your trying to make?

There really wasn't a point. I was just curious as to the various opinions on journalism/media from the org's perspective. I was planning on writing some sort of essay/paper on the subject for english, and I wanted some opinions other than my own.

Fall_Child42 · Post by **Fall_Child42** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 8:04 pm

I hate what it has turned into for many of the reason's godix stated and many many more.

but your illustration using the games wasn't very persuasive... there are far far better illustrations about how bad the MSM has become in the last couple of decades.

MSM is nothing but propaganda machines.

What was I talking about?

Videogames huh?

I like videogames. I had more fun playing Vice City than San Andreas though. Personally I feel that it may have something to do with the soundtrack. Vice city had a rockin' sound track.

As for your impromptu survey, I suggest you need new friends.

I'm pretty sure if I asked 5 people I knew they'd all say video games were awesome.

Speaking of poorly done surveys... have you ever seen those opinion polls on the news or in newspapers? Can anyone tell me how sometimes the stats add up to be less than or more than %100? I don't believe how people think those polls actually reflect the opinions of the majority of the population.

A: Volunteer bias. Only those who participate are answering, their opinions may differ significantly from those who choose not to participate.

B:Selection bias. Survey respondents were not selected randomly, they were already readers of a certain type of magazine.

C: Reporting bias. There is no transparency to the results, and the survey creators have a vested interest in skewing the results in a certain way.

D: The question asked is often not revealed, indicating the wording may have created false results.

This thread is now about discussing proper ways of conducting statistical research

godix · Post by **godix** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 8:33 pm

My problem with surveys and statistics isn't how they're done (although that is an issue) it's that people write entire stories based on them as if they make the slightest bit of difference. "New poll shows obama in the lead" "Clinton ahead in polls in PA" "McCain beating both in polls" and so on and so on and so on. The only poll that makes any difference is the one in November that every american can take part in. Until then knock it the fuck off.

Another really annoying thing is when writers try to pass polls off as a replacement for facts. "X percentage believe Saddam had ties to 9/11." So what? Either he was or he was not involved in 9/11 (for the record, was not). No amount of opinion polls either way will change the facts. Similar it doesn't matter how many bible belters believe in creationism or evolution. The scientific method doesn't have 'take an opinion poll of uneducated non-scientists' in it's steps. Science is what it is regardless of what some farmer in Arkansas thinks.

Polls should compliment a story not be the story. A poll on creationism/evolution beliefs would work very well as a point in an article about science education. A poll on saddam and 9/11 would help understanding in an article about US reaction to the Iraq war. A political poll fits an article about the comparative strengths and weaknesses of the people running. Polls can serve as one of several bits of data in forming an opinion about something but as a complete article in and of itself they're pointless.

Serv0 · Post by **Serv0** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 1:51 am

I'm too lazy to say everything this wiseman said.

If there's one thing I noticed with a lot of people today, is that they rarely check the actual source provider of news. "The news said Lemmings is violent." "They say that Johnny Depp is getting a sex change." "According to a poll, Clinton is to be the democratic candidate."
Who says? Who's providing this information?
It's not exactly worth anything when Facebook says, that Barrack Obama gang bangs hos over the weekend.

As for my opinion of games, the fundamentalists can bitch and moan all they want, because so far I haven't seen a lot of them do anything about it. And those who have done something ended up losing in the end anyways.

Fall_Child42 · Post by **Fall_Child42** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 8:03 am

CodeChrono wrote:
What's the point your trying to make?
There really wasn't a point. I was just curious as to the various opinions on journalism/media from the org's perspective. I was planning on writing some sort of essay/paper on the subject for english, and I wanted some opinions other than my own.

If you are actually writing an essay on this topic and have some time and are generally interested in it, may I suggest some books?

A large portion of my University education was media focused.

The Problem of the Media: U.S. Communication Politics in the Twenty-First Century (Paperback)
by Robert McChesney

Bias By Bernard Goldberg
and then the refute to that book

What liberal media? By Eric Alterman

I just realized that most of my focus was on advertising though
But here some other books I found to be a really interesting read even though they didn't deal strictly with media

True Lies: The GNN Book
The Best Democracy Money Can Buy by Greg Palast
and The Corporation (Also a documentary if you don't like reading!)

Also
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 5033531091

BasharOfTheAges · Post by **BasharOfTheAges** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 11:45 am

When news became more about entertainment and ad revenue than about presenting factual information it became something else. Something untrustworthy. It became a social indicator of another sort - something that could be pointed to as a mirror on the part of society that runs the news. Not really useful to the average Joe, but a sociologist's dream.