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Media in general, but American media especially, is hyper optimized for clickbait. Informing people about news and current events is useful, but inducing outrag
by rescripting 2y ago
Media in general, but American media especially, is hyper optimized for clickbait. Informing people about news and current events is useful, but inducing outrage is _profitable_. Newsrooms across the country have realtime metrics dashboards showing what stories are doing numbers, and its not meeting minutes of local PTA meetings.
All incentives drive journalists to search out stories designed to light up your monkey brain, and a byproduct of that is every stereotype under the sun is magnified and distorted into a caricature.
- Whoppertime 2y agoI just wonder why more Americans don't consume News in a raw form. You can watch speeches and Congressional minutes on C-Span. No talking heads (at least when they're directly covering an event) or ad breaks. I can watch C-Span 2 segments online, series like Book TV, but I never hear about Americans watching C-Span for their news
- bigstrat2003 2y agoFor the same reason people will choose to get calories from Twinkies rather than home cooked meals, I would imagine. You have to put a conscious effort in to avoid the product which is bad for you but has been meticulously crafted to be easier and hit the dopamine centers of your brain harder.