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> The whole idea behind Protect is that you could convince people to pay for the product once you’ve gotten them to the highest point of anxiety you can possibl

> The whole idea behind Protect is that you could convince people to pay for the product once you’ve gotten them to the highest point of anxiety you can possibly get them to," one former employee said, referring to Citizen's subscription service. "Citizen can’t make money unless it makes its users believe there are constant, urgent threats around them at all times," There are a lot of businesses built on this model. The news outlets spring immediately to mind.

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the_snooze 5y ago
Everything is "BREAKING NEWS" these days, complete with fancy graphics and soundtracks. But there just isn't enough news day-to-day to warrant that level of importance. Not everyday is 9/11, much to news outlets' dismay.
- silexia 5y ago
  I agree, I watched the weather channel with my father in law yesterday... Everything was "THREAT!" and "POSSIBLE TORNADO", etc. This is being shown in Southern California lol and they are reporting on minor weather risks a thousand miles away. Fox news does the same thing... Find crime anywhere in the country, bonus points if it involves sex or a minority and make it a headline if it involves an immigrant.
  - johncessna 5y ago
    they all do it
  - hef19898 5y ago
    That is, to an extent, a US problem. At least at the very extremes US media shows. Stuff like Citizens is even more extreme, using these mechanisms for even clearer, and more direct, monetary gain. Just how something like that can be legal is beyond me. Even US police saw it as potential risk, that alone tells everything.
  - jfrunyon 5y ago
    > This is being shown in Southern California lol and they are reporting on minor weather risks a thousand miles away. Well, yeah. The Weather Channel is nationwide. ???
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- kleer001 5y ago
  These days? Well, the last 40 years... CNN started in 1980.
  - evo_9 5y ago
    'Extra Extra Read All About it!' from anon newspaper kid standing on the street-corner ~100+ years ago (probably older).
    - a4isms 5y ago
      That had a literal meaning at one point, but then it got diluted. Newspapers were published several times a day when I was a child, so the late edition would have things that happened in the afternoon. If something very big happened, they would put out an “extra” edition and trucks would race to get the extras out to the newsstands, newspaper boxes, and corner stores. A news agent shouting “Extra! Extra!” was originally informing people that something had happened and the news was in the freshly printed “extra” edition, so even if they’d already bought a paper that day, they’d be motivated to buy another. https://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/extra_extra_read_all_about_it_newsboy_shout https://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/ext...
    - scarecrowbob 5y ago
      Yeah.... remember The Maine ?
    - kleer001 5y ago
      Not really the same thing. That's just once a day. If we wanna go deep we can talk about the evolutionary origins of gossip. I'm sure being a social animal with complex signs and individual identities demands communication about one's neighbours and peers. What I mean is a constantly televised high bandwidth audio visual stream. That's only 40 years old.
      - aidenn0 5y ago
        An extra was for news not in the daily paper.
- labster 5y ago
  BREAKING NEWS is just a synonym for “news”. The addition of the word “breaking” is just a stylistic choice and conveys no additional meaning.
  - midasuni 5y ago
    I remember seeing a headline “breaking news Michael Jackson dead” This was 48 hours after it happened.
    - atatatat 5y ago
      If you hadn't heard about it, it was breaking.
      - midasuni 5y ago
        After 2 days of wall To wall coverage in print, online, on radio and on tv, you had heard about it. Breaking is when things are changing rapidly and an event is currently Happening.
  - krapp 5y ago
    >The addition of the word “breaking” is just a stylistic choice and conveys no additional meaning. "breaking news" is supposed to refer to news that's currently ongoing or developing. Whether or not it means much now, when practically all news is live, is debatable.
- closeparen 5y ago
  In The Newsroom the crew of an evening news show would call their network’s control room and “break in” to the broadcast out of turn, when something really important was happening. If the term has any coherent meaning I expect it’s that. Worth interrupting other programming for. On a 24x7 news network, probably meaningless.
  - pseudalopex 5y ago
    Related meanings of break are older than the telegraph.[1] Maybe the printing press. [1] https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/break+it+to+you https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/break+it+to+you
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[deleted]
MomoXenosaga 5y ago
There are politicians built on this model. Reagan became a canonised saint for imprisoning a record number of African Americans and Hispanics.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

the_snooze 5y ago

Everything is "BREAKING NEWS" these days, complete with fancy graphics and soundtracks. But there just isn't enough news day-to-day to warrant that level of importance. Not everyday is 9/11, much to news outlets' dismay.

silexia 5y ago
I agree, I watched the weather channel with my father in law yesterday... Everything was "THREAT!" and "POSSIBLE TORNADO", etc. This is being shown in Southern California lol and they are reporting on minor weather risks a thousand miles away. Fox news does the same thing... Find crime anywhere in the country, bonus points if it involves sex or a minority and make it a headline if it involves an immigrant.
- johncessna 5y ago
  they all do it
- hef19898 5y ago
  That is, to an extent, a US problem. At least at the very extremes US media shows. Stuff like Citizens is even more extreme, using these mechanisms for even clearer, and more direct, monetary gain. Just how something like that can be legal is beyond me. Even US police saw it as potential risk, that alone tells everything.
- jfrunyon 5y ago
  > This is being shown in Southern California lol and they are reporting on minor weather risks a thousand miles away. Well, yeah. The Weather Channel is nationwide. ???
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
kleer001 5y ago
These days? Well, the last 40 years... CNN started in 1980.
- evo_9 5y ago
  'Extra Extra Read All About it!' from anon newspaper kid standing on the street-corner ~100+ years ago (probably older).
  - a4isms 5y ago
    That had a literal meaning at one point, but then it got diluted. Newspapers were published several times a day when I was a child, so the late edition would have things that happened in the afternoon. If something very big happened, they would put out an “extra” edition and trucks would race to get the extras out to the newsstands, newspaper boxes, and corner stores. A news agent shouting “Extra! Extra!” was originally informing people that something had happened and the news was in the freshly printed “extra” edition, so even if they’d already bought a paper that day, they’d be motivated to buy another. https://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/extra_extra_read_all_about_it_newsboy_shout https://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/ext...
  - scarecrowbob 5y ago
    Yeah.... remember The Maine ?
  - kleer001 5y ago
    Not really the same thing. That's just once a day. If we wanna go deep we can talk about the evolutionary origins of gossip. I'm sure being a social animal with complex signs and individual identities demands communication about one's neighbours and peers. What I mean is a constantly televised high bandwidth audio visual stream. That's only 40 years old.
    - aidenn0 5y ago
      An extra was for news not in the daily paper.
labster 5y ago
BREAKING NEWS is just a synonym for “news”. The addition of the word “breaking” is just a stylistic choice and conveys no additional meaning.
- midasuni 5y ago
  I remember seeing a headline “breaking news Michael Jackson dead” This was 48 hours after it happened.
  - atatatat 5y ago
    If you hadn't heard about it, it was breaking.
    - midasuni 5y ago
      After 2 days of wall To wall coverage in print, online, on radio and on tv, you had heard about it. Breaking is when things are changing rapidly and an event is currently Happening.
- krapp 5y ago
  >The addition of the word “breaking” is just a stylistic choice and conveys no additional meaning. "breaking news" is supposed to refer to news that's currently ongoing or developing. Whether or not it means much now, when practically all news is live, is debatable.
closeparen 5y ago
In The Newsroom the crew of an evening news show would call their network’s control room and “break in” to the broadcast out of turn, when something really important was happening. If the term has any coherent meaning I expect it’s that. Worth interrupting other programming for. On a 24x7 news network, probably meaningless.
- pseudalopex 5y ago
  Related meanings of break are older than the telegraph.[1] Maybe the printing press. [1] https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/break+it+to+you https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/break+it+to+you

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

MomoXenosaga 5y ago

There are politicians built on this model. Reagan became a canonised saint for imprisoning a record number of African Americans and Hispanics.