Sunday, March 29, 2015

Either Way, The Media Reaps the Profits

With the passage and signing of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, two things were predictable. One, a firestorm would develop, and Two, very few people would be able to explain what the law purports to do or what the law states. 

There is a reason for this. Media is counting on the firestorm in order to gain listeners, viewers, readers, and reap profits from advertising dollars generated by the increased audience. 

Media does this by putting their primary emphasis on the reaction to the law, and very little emphasis on the mechanics of the law, its contents, and/or intent. 

In other words, media see's their audience as a giant mass of ignorant individuals that they can easily manipulate into a revenue stream by targeting their news stories to provoke and inflame. Media has no interest in using their platform and power for education, nor for a forum to bring diverse opinion forward and seek solutions. If this were the case, this legislation, like this, might not be necessary. 

In this example, is not clear if WANE TV was trying to exacerbate and confuse audience emotions and feed the firestorm intentionally, but this story rather speaks for itself.  



As users, sometimes reluctantly, of the media, we must remember that they have a large stake in labeling people/groups, sensationalizing the information about them, and pitting them against each other. It generates revenue, increases profits, and adds to the corporate bottom line. And all of this is done on the emotions for the audience the pretend to serve.



Sunday, March 15, 2015

It's Not What "15 Finds Out", It's What 15 Leaves Out.....

Media does not give you the whole story. Why? Inept reporting and/or fear of losing advertising revenue are usually the top two reasons for this malfeasance. 
Last night's parking lot shooting at Piere's Entertainment Complex is a near textbook example. 

21Alive/WPTA/ Indiana's News Center story accurately identifies Piere's, but misspells the name. 

WANE TV's story give a generic address but does generically mention a night club on their Facebook story, but conveniently leaves that out of the story on their WANE.COM web page.

The Fort Wayne Police Department press release, as it should, provides the exact address, names the nightclub, misspelling it as Pierre's (that's where WPTA copied it from). Press release courtesy of http://www.aroundfortwayne.com/blog/


So, the Maven draws these conclusions: 
WPTA did no original reporting on this, they just copied the FWPD press release, including the misspelled business name.....and used that ugly generic "bullet" picture as a graphic. 
WANE did some actual reporting providing a photograph of the parking lot, but for some reason, WANE saw fit to "protect" the name of the business. 
The cynics among us must conclude that WANE reporters/employees must have large, unpaid bar tabs at Piere's, or WANE management is afraid of losing existing/potential advertising revenue from Piere's. 

Many will remember how, for many years, media "protected" the golden advertising goose known as Glenbrook Square mall. If a purse snatching took place there, the media dutifully reported it at "4201 Coldwater Road". A similar purse snatching at Southtown Mall was always reported as "Southtown Mall on Fort Wayne's south side", often times mentioning the specific name of a store. 

That reporting dilemma no longer exists, as FW media presided over the death of Southtown and continues to exploit crime stories, which apparently, only take place in the Southern half of the city. 




Monday, March 9, 2015

I Guess They Thought It Was Funny....


The kids in the WOWO news room strike again. Only they would think that referring to a local business as a "joint" would be funny or "hip".




Considering the WOWO kids copied 21Alive's story, someone out in the double-wide on Maples Road just had to add their own "finishing" touch to the story. 




Having their business referred to as a "joint" probably means that East Of Chicago Pizza won't be placing a large advertising buy with the formerly influential radio station anytime soon.