4 ms·
I wonder if a modern descendant of that credulity is a cause or an effect of the boggling dominance of UK tabloids.
by user982 5y ago
I wonder if a modern descendant of that credulity is a cause or an effect of the boggling dominance of UK tabloids.
- neximo64 5y agoIm not sure you've visited the UK but the general populace doesn't really believe the tabloids as much as people outside think they do. It's more a form of entertainment and mocking exaggeration. The average UK news reader is amongst the most distrustful of news in the world.
- derriz 5y agoI don't think the UK tabloid press is as harmless as that. Yes, sometimes the headlines can be funny but very often it seems they are about vilifying or bullying an individual or group. They mainly sell "outrage" but under the cloak of occasional humour, have no regard at all for truth. Also to dismiss their influence as "entertainment" is not accurate either. Politicians, broadsheets and "respectable" media often take their cues from or respond to tabloid stories. This gives tabloids incredible power to frame the narrative outside of the realm of "entertainment" and "mocking exaggeration" and is why politicians have always tried to cosy up to tabloid editors and owners. Some of the covers I've seen on tabloids - particularly the xenophobic or slyly racist stuff is quite shocking to be honest - I've never seen similar in the equivalent press of other countries.
- pjc50 5y agoPeople believed them enough to vote for Brexit.
- bodge5000 5y agoNot even sure its worth commenting on the irony of this, that ships long sailed
- dangerface 5y agoOne year isn't that long especially when talking about geopolitics, the UK could join the EU as easily as it left all thats needed is the will. Democracies like the UK and US have no consistent political principles besides democracy, Brexit might be over but the UK flip flopping on EU membership will never end.
- tragomaskhalos 5y agoAnd conversely, the idea that everyone who voted to leave the EU was a credulous xenophobic idiot was a similarly false narrative peddled shamelessly by other segments of the media. The red-tops do not have a monopoly on distorting the facts to fit a simplified worldview.
- mmarq 5y agoNobody thinks that all brexiters are xenophobes and nothing as such has been written or said in any respectable media outlet (say the FT, Guardian, BBC, etc…), but denying that xenophobia played a significant role in the referendum campaign and that it influenced the result, is denying reality.
- unraveller 5y agoAlain De Botton (A British Philosopher) has a fascinatingly obvious book on The News: A User's Manual (2014) that I was lucky enough to read before the fake news cycles in MSM hit and became really pernicious. The book is much more about the archetypes of stories. It seems that when people find something that works (for them) in a story then they double and triple down on that style until all permutations of novel familiarity are exhausted, if ever. Which reminds me of another concept about mass media creation: Loewy's "MAYA" (Most Advanced Yet Acceptable) principle for successful artistic creation. It tends to get updated to Most Advanced Yet Familiar for our nostalgic times.
- globular-toast 5y agoI think that's wishful thinking, to be honest.