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Media Can’t Stop Presenting Horrifying Stories as ‘Uplifting’ Perseverance Porn

280 points by joeyespo 7y ago

GuB-42 7y ago
No matter what created the horrible situation, getting out of it by perseverance and cleverness is good. Sure better health care or whatever could have prevented the situation, but that's not the subject. We don't live in a perfect world, and these stories tell you that even if you can't change the world, you can still solve your own problems. And if such articles are a problem than what about celebration of war heroes. Do we need to forget their resolve in the face of adversity just because war is essentially state sanctioned mass murder?
- kaitai 7y ago
  "...these stories tell you that even if you can't change the world, you can still solve your own problems." I think part of the criticism is that this statement is false in many cases. The psychological benefit of such stories is that we can comfort ourselves by telling others that if they didn't manage to cure their own leukemia and run a marathon while supporting three children and a disabled spouse, they just weren't creative and perseverant enough. A similar criticism can legitimately be made of glorifying war heroes. It makes it easier to pat ourselves on the back for sending them into a situation in which they can prove their resolve by avoiding death for a while, and we can ignore all the dumb schmucks who just got blown up right away -- they simply didn't show much resolve, did they. It's all sort of the converse of "the personal is political"...
TazeTSchnitzel 7y ago
The glass isn't 95% empty, it's 5% full!
suby 7y ago
A lot of these are tied to lack of healthcare. We need a universal healthcare system in America, I'm tired of arguing with people who claim that we can't do what almost every (if not every) other western country has already done.
- yepthatsreality 7y ago
  Sounds like you’re arguing with insurance salesmen.
  - cj 7y ago
    No. There is a very large number of people in the US who are (for whatever reason) against universal health care. I have family who can't afford health insurance. And those same people would vote against a president promising universal healthcare. I don't understand it. But a lot of people don't agree with universal health care (even many low/middle income people)
    - adamnemecek 7y ago
      They've been brainwashed.
    - rtpg 7y ago
      It's this thing where US political dialog has basically become "Well _I_ would like this but what about all these other people the media say won't like this? Won't someone think of them?" which short circuits to "Oh I don't want this" Lots of people who worry a hell of a lot about the federal deficit when talking about whether they would like to be able to afford going to the doctor. Nevermind that this discussion rarely covers the deficit when it comes time to give tax breaks to "job creators". Also the Democratic party is comically bad at politics in the US. Like "oh but you might lose your private insurance" is a discussion people in the primary are having _when you would be replacing private insurance with free healthcare_. What sort of positioning is even being had here? So many people are stuck in the 90s
      - Dumblydorr 7y ago
        If your tribal leaders support something, you do. Tribe comes before religion, race, or any other consideration, though admittedly many of those are correlated. In the end, for around 90% of Americans, its about R vs D.
      - 7y ago
chrisseaton 7y ago
I don’t get it - the media companies didn’t create these bad situations - they’re reporting people trying to do the best they can with the hands they’re dealt. What should they do? Criticise people trying to help because it could be better elsewhere? Home Depot employees can’t change national attitudes to healthcare but they can build someone a walker, so they’re bad people?
- snek 7y ago
  Well if you read the article, they say that the media should take these stories as opportunities to discuss pressing social issues instead of skating around them. Reporting is about bringing cohesive context to information, and these stories do the opposite.
  - whatshisface 7y ago
    >Reporting is about bringing cohesive context to information Policy discussion is about bringing cohesive context to information. Reporting is about reporting information.
    - ggggtez 7y ago
      Do you really think reporters just state facts and call it a day? How do they know which facts are the important ones to say? Why not list the shoesize of everyone they interview, along with the name of their dog? Obviously, I'm making a point: Facts tell a story. The reporters for these stories are choosing what facts tell the narrative they think people want (triumph over adversity) without mentioning the facts that they think people don't want (acknowledging that the healthcare system in the US is broken for most Americans).
      - whatshisface 7y ago
        There's a subtle difference between sorting based on priority and compiling facts to suit a narrative. If you start with a narrative, you will fall prey to things like confirmation bias. There's nothing wrong with prioritizing the most important information, but it's very bad to say "today I am going to prove that XYZ" before going around prioritizing all the facts that would make XYZ seem real. It's a fine line between journalism and opinion pieces. To get a better perspective of this, imagine a reporter that earnestly believed something you disagreed with. You'd probably want them to stick to the facts instead of tying every world event to their favorite policy.
binarymax 7y ago
Even worse is the first example is definitely an ad for home depot. It’s radical consumerism masquerading as hope.
melling 7y ago
People seem to love human interest stories. The nightly news on the majors usually ends with one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human-interest_story https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human-interest_story
benj111 7y ago
There was a comment on a good news story today basically suggesting there should be a minimum percentage of good news stories. I guess these are the types of stories we'd get!
Entalpi 7y ago
This reminds me of whenever someone creates a Gofund me for health reasons. It seems a bit alien to me still as a European that people need to go beg on the internet in order to not be financially ruined by healthcare costs. :-(
- peeters 7y ago
  GoFundMes are still pretty common in Canada, it might not be the same as some European countries but at least here having an expensive illness can still rack up a lot of peripheral costs, like childcare, food, transportation, while at the same time your income will be reduced. We're pretty good about covering the direct costs (except pharmaceuticals unfortunately) but the social costs are still typically left to the individual.
- jamestimmins 7y ago
  If you had a TV show in which the winner had their severe illness treated, it would fit right on with Black Mirror. But we're really not that far away.
  - goldcd 7y ago
    "America's got untreated illnesses" "Unfortunately Keith, you lost the public vote and also your left foot to diabetes" "Tune in next week!"
- Mirioron 7y ago
  It's probably alien because you haven't looked around. In quite a few European countries you can easily end up in a situation with no healthcare available to you other than the ER (eg if you're unemployed but don't get unemployment benefits). It's also not unheard of that people just can't afford treatment for their illness or even worse - the treatment just isn't available.
  - pornel 7y ago
    Availability of ER is still incredibly important. Nobody will refuse to be taken to hospital if they're in serious condition. In my experience from Poland, people who lose health coverage find a way to get it back if they really need it. Get any legal job, enrol in school, apply for disability, etc. Sometimes pleading with the staff to skip the eligibility check works, too. And if everything else fails, the out-of-pocket costs aren't insta-bankrupting.
wazoox 7y ago
Generally speaking, the mainstream media do whatever is possible to hide away serious politics and social issues under a veil of entertainment, voyeurism, or pornography. Whatever serious issue is at take is dumbed down until it's completely harmless. Healthcare. Gun violence. Plutocracy. Corruption. The death or democracy and rise of a new feudalism. Imperialism and endless war. Climate change and fossil fuel industry. All of the details of these are turned into entertaining stories, preventing people from going to the pitchforks. You know the famous Henry Ford quote: "It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning."
- hurrdurr2 7y ago
  This is a bit cliche but doesn't make it any less true; it is in the interest of the powers that be to keep their citizenry dumb and divided.
- mistermann 7y ago
  This here is the exact problem. Imagine the world as an IT project, is this how anyone here would run it? Is this how ideas should be communicated? It's so obviously theatre, how so few people can see it boggles the mind.
  - liberte82 7y ago
    I see you haven't seen the IT projects I've been part of. ;)
- tripzilch 7y ago
  Well, positive stories make for better advertising click rates, and as we are told, we need advertising to support quality journalism. Such is the circle of this-doesn't-add-up.
wuliwong 7y ago
This article doesn't present the case that this is something wide spread or increasing in frequency. It just contains links to various articles but gives the reader no idea of the relative numbers of this type of reporting versus other types and whether or not this type of reporting is increasing in frequency. This is a complete non-issue if these are the only 10 or so articles in the last 3 years.
Ididntdothis 7y ago
I feel a lot of these stories are about people trying to survive in dysfunctional environments. The other type of story they like to publish is about the glamouros lives of rich people. What seems to be taboo is to connect these two together. You have one group of people who don't get even the most basic healthcare or go into debt over school lunches and then you have others who have more luxury you can imagine. But somehow it’s not ok to point out that maybe one has to do with the other. It seems to me a lot of these stories are about telling poor people “stop complaining and be as resourceful as the people we are writing about. And certainly don’t ask your boss for more money or your politicians for doing a better job”
philwelch 7y ago
Stories about families and communities coming together to help each other out are “horrifying” because that’s supposed to be the exclusive concern of government?
- konschubert 7y ago
  These people end up with solutions that are sub-optimal exposing them to more suffering than would have been necessary in a civilized country. The horrifying part is that the overton window in the US is so out of whack that somehow people consider these stories uplifting.
  - philwelch 7y ago
    I dunno, that Home Depot walker doesn’t look “sub-par” to me. And I speak from personal experience with Actual Medical Equipment.
    - Doxin 7y ago
      The horrifying part there is of course that the subject of that story doesn't have access to sufficient medical care and equipment.
suff 7y ago
So you want to put the people who can't balance a budget, or even present pricing information, in charge of a walker for a toddler? The story says they built one at Home Depot, for almost nothng, in a few hours. Do you really think a national plan could ever be that efficient? Under a national plan, it would cost thousands of dollars and take months. Does that sound better?
inflatableDodo 7y ago
>"Millennials move from job to job in order to climb the ladder…. For baby boomers and other generations…loyalty and dedication to a single company or career drove, and still drives, much of their working lives." Can someone tell me where the companies are that will return such loyalty? I've been looking and they don't seem to exist any more (if they ever really did).
- whamlastxmas 7y ago
  Look for a company that provides a defined benefit pension plan. It's basically impossible to find but really the only way an employer could convince me they care about tenure
  - liberte82 7y ago
    So government or public-private partnerships are your options
stillbourne 7y ago
This is one of the things I hate about the American Ninja Warrior. Look at all the hardship and trials and tribulations this person has done to get here. Not about they exercise mind you, but the circumstances of their shitty existence. Rejoice that these mere mortals have the opportunity to run this obstacle course that is a metaphor of their shitty little lives.
Hnrobert42 7y ago
The world is a pretty miserable place, and there is no shortage of coverage (local nightly news, anyone?). I for one don’t mind a few pieces focused on an uplifting part of any otherwise sad story.
RickJWagner 7y ago
Huh. I hadn't heard of Fair.org before. I'm going to add them to my RSS reader for a while. If they realy are 'fair', it should be a breath of fresh air.

280 points by joeyespo 7y ago

No matter what created the horrible situation, getting out of it by perseverance and cleverness is good. Sure better health care or whatever could have prevented the situation, but that's not the subject. We don't live in a perfect world, and these stories tell you that even if you can't change the world, you can still solve your own problems. And if such articles are a problem than what about celebration of war heroes. Do we need to forget their resolve in the face of adversity just because war is essentially state sanctioned mass murder?

kaitai 7y ago
"...these stories tell you that even if you can't change the world, you can still solve your own problems." I think part of the criticism is that this statement is false in many cases. The psychological benefit of such stories is that we can comfort ourselves by telling others that if they didn't manage to cure their own leukemia and run a marathon while supporting three children and a disabled spouse, they just weren't creative and perseverant enough. A similar criticism can legitimately be made of glorifying war heroes. It makes it easier to pat ourselves on the back for sending them into a situation in which they can prove their resolve by avoiding death for a while, and we can ignore all the dumb schmucks who just got blown up right away -- they simply didn't show much resolve, did they. It's all sort of the converse of "the personal is political"...

TazeTSchnitzel 7y ago

The glass isn't 95% empty, it's 5% full!

suby 7y ago

A lot of these are tied to lack of healthcare. We need a universal healthcare system in America, I'm tired of arguing with people who claim that we can't do what almost every (if not every) other western country has already done.

yepthatsreality 7y ago
Sounds like you’re arguing with insurance salesmen.
- cj 7y ago
  No. There is a very large number of people in the US who are (for whatever reason) against universal health care. I have family who can't afford health insurance. And those same people would vote against a president promising universal healthcare. I don't understand it. But a lot of people don't agree with universal health care (even many low/middle income people)
  - adamnemecek 7y ago
    They've been brainwashed.
  - rtpg 7y ago
    It's this thing where US political dialog has basically become "Well _I_ would like this but what about all these other people the media say won't like this? Won't someone think of them?" which short circuits to "Oh I don't want this" Lots of people who worry a hell of a lot about the federal deficit when talking about whether they would like to be able to afford going to the doctor. Nevermind that this discussion rarely covers the deficit when it comes time to give tax breaks to "job creators". Also the Democratic party is comically bad at politics in the US. Like "oh but you might lose your private insurance" is a discussion people in the primary are having _when you would be replacing private insurance with free healthcare_. What sort of positioning is even being had here? So many people are stuck in the 90s
    - Dumblydorr 7y ago
      If your tribal leaders support something, you do. Tribe comes before religion, race, or any other consideration, though admittedly many of those are correlated. In the end, for around 90% of Americans, its about R vs D.
    - 7y ago

chrisseaton 7y ago

I don’t get it - the media companies didn’t create these bad situations - they’re reporting people trying to do the best they can with the hands they’re dealt. What should they do? Criticise people trying to help because it could be better elsewhere? Home Depot employees can’t change national attitudes to healthcare but they can build someone a walker, so they’re bad people?

snek 7y ago
Well if you read the article, they say that the media should take these stories as opportunities to discuss pressing social issues instead of skating around them. Reporting is about bringing cohesive context to information, and these stories do the opposite.
- whatshisface 7y ago
  >Reporting is about bringing cohesive context to information Policy discussion is about bringing cohesive context to information. Reporting is about reporting information.
  - ggggtez 7y ago
    Do you really think reporters just state facts and call it a day? How do they know which facts are the important ones to say? Why not list the shoesize of everyone they interview, along with the name of their dog? Obviously, I'm making a point: Facts tell a story. The reporters for these stories are choosing what facts tell the narrative they think people want (triumph over adversity) without mentioning the facts that they think people don't want (acknowledging that the healthcare system in the US is broken for most Americans).
    - whatshisface 7y ago
      There's a subtle difference between sorting based on priority and compiling facts to suit a narrative. If you start with a narrative, you will fall prey to things like confirmation bias. There's nothing wrong with prioritizing the most important information, but it's very bad to say "today I am going to prove that XYZ" before going around prioritizing all the facts that would make XYZ seem real. It's a fine line between journalism and opinion pieces. To get a better perspective of this, imagine a reporter that earnestly believed something you disagreed with. You'd probably want them to stick to the facts instead of tying every world event to their favorite policy.

binarymax 7y ago

Even worse is the first example is definitely an ad for home depot. It’s radical consumerism masquerading as hope.

melling 7y ago

People seem to love human interest stories. The nightly news on the majors usually ends with one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human-interest_story https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human-interest_story

benj111 7y ago

There was a comment on a good news story today basically suggesting there should be a minimum percentage of good news stories. I guess these are the types of stories we'd get!

Entalpi 7y ago

This reminds me of whenever someone creates a Gofund me for health reasons. It seems a bit alien to me still as a European that people need to go beg on the internet in order to not be financially ruined by healthcare costs. :-(

peeters 7y ago
GoFundMes are still pretty common in Canada, it might not be the same as some European countries but at least here having an expensive illness can still rack up a lot of peripheral costs, like childcare, food, transportation, while at the same time your income will be reduced. We're pretty good about covering the direct costs (except pharmaceuticals unfortunately) but the social costs are still typically left to the individual.
jamestimmins 7y ago
If you had a TV show in which the winner had their severe illness treated, it would fit right on with Black Mirror. But we're really not that far away.
- goldcd 7y ago
  "America's got untreated illnesses" "Unfortunately Keith, you lost the public vote and also your left foot to diabetes" "Tune in next week!"
Mirioron 7y ago
It's probably alien because you haven't looked around. In quite a few European countries you can easily end up in a situation with no healthcare available to you other than the ER (eg if you're unemployed but don't get unemployment benefits). It's also not unheard of that people just can't afford treatment for their illness or even worse - the treatment just isn't available.
- pornel 7y ago
  Availability of ER is still incredibly important. Nobody will refuse to be taken to hospital if they're in serious condition. In my experience from Poland, people who lose health coverage find a way to get it back if they really need it. Get any legal job, enrol in school, apply for disability, etc. Sometimes pleading with the staff to skip the eligibility check works, too. And if everything else fails, the out-of-pocket costs aren't insta-bankrupting.

wazoox 7y ago

Generally speaking, the mainstream media do whatever is possible to hide away serious politics and social issues under a veil of entertainment, voyeurism, or pornography. Whatever serious issue is at take is dumbed down until it's completely harmless. Healthcare. Gun violence. Plutocracy. Corruption. The death or democracy and rise of a new feudalism. Imperialism and endless war. Climate change and fossil fuel industry. All of the details of these are turned into entertaining stories, preventing people from going to the pitchforks. You know the famous Henry Ford quote: "It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning."

hurrdurr2 7y ago
This is a bit cliche but doesn't make it any less true; it is in the interest of the powers that be to keep their citizenry dumb and divided.
mistermann 7y ago
This here is the exact problem. Imagine the world as an IT project, is this how anyone here would run it? Is this how ideas should be communicated? It's so obviously theatre, how so few people can see it boggles the mind.
- liberte82 7y ago
  I see you haven't seen the IT projects I've been part of. ;)
tripzilch 7y ago
Well, positive stories make for better advertising click rates, and as we are told, we need advertising to support quality journalism. Such is the circle of this-doesn't-add-up.

wuliwong 7y ago

This article doesn't present the case that this is something wide spread or increasing in frequency. It just contains links to various articles but gives the reader no idea of the relative numbers of this type of reporting versus other types and whether or not this type of reporting is increasing in frequency. This is a complete non-issue if these are the only 10 or so articles in the last 3 years.

Ididntdothis 7y ago

I feel a lot of these stories are about people trying to survive in dysfunctional environments. The other type of story they like to publish is about the glamouros lives of rich people. What seems to be taboo is to connect these two together. You have one group of people who don't get even the most basic healthcare or go into debt over school lunches and then you have others who have more luxury you can imagine. But somehow it’s not ok to point out that maybe one has to do with the other. It seems to me a lot of these stories are about telling poor people “stop complaining and be as resourceful as the people we are writing about. And certainly don’t ask your boss for more money or your politicians for doing a better job”

philwelch 7y ago

Stories about families and communities coming together to help each other out are “horrifying” because that’s supposed to be the exclusive concern of government?

konschubert 7y ago
These people end up with solutions that are sub-optimal exposing them to more suffering than would have been necessary in a civilized country. The horrifying part is that the overton window in the US is so out of whack that somehow people consider these stories uplifting.
- philwelch 7y ago
  I dunno, that Home Depot walker doesn’t look “sub-par” to me. And I speak from personal experience with Actual Medical Equipment.
  - Doxin 7y ago
    The horrifying part there is of course that the subject of that story doesn't have access to sufficient medical care and equipment.

suff 7y ago

So you want to put the people who can't balance a budget, or even present pricing information, in charge of a walker for a toddler? The story says they built one at Home Depot, for almost nothng, in a few hours. Do you really think a national plan could ever be that efficient? Under a national plan, it would cost thousands of dollars and take months. Does that sound better?

inflatableDodo 7y ago

>"Millennials move from job to job in order to climb the ladder…. For baby boomers and other generations…loyalty and dedication to a single company or career drove, and still drives, much of their working lives." Can someone tell me where the companies are that will return such loyalty? I've been looking and they don't seem to exist any more (if they ever really did).

whamlastxmas 7y ago
Look for a company that provides a defined benefit pension plan. It's basically impossible to find but really the only way an employer could convince me they care about tenure
- liberte82 7y ago
  So government or public-private partnerships are your options

stillbourne 7y ago

This is one of the things I hate about the American Ninja Warrior. Look at all the hardship and trials and tribulations this person has done to get here. Not about they exercise mind you, but the circumstances of their shitty existence. Rejoice that these mere mortals have the opportunity to run this obstacle course that is a metaphor of their shitty little lives.

Hnrobert42 7y ago

The world is a pretty miserable place, and there is no shortage of coverage (local nightly news, anyone?). I for one don’t mind a few pieces focused on an uplifting part of any otherwise sad story.

RickJWagner 7y ago

Huh. I hadn't heard of Fair.org before. I'm going to add them to my RSS reader for a while. If they realy are 'fair', it should be a breath of fresh air.