Beware of the major beneficiaries of the recession, credit crunch or market place realignment or whatever you want to call it. Yes, you are right, it is the news media.
With 24 hours news reporting on TV and the intense competition of newspapers, journalists have to find copy to fill their editors’ insatiable appetite.
For all of us no news is good news. For the news media it is BIG trouble. So the news journalists are pressurised to find stories or items that will also satisfy the public’s insatiable appetite for the negative. As we all know the standards of newspapers are deteriorating and this is emphasised by the propensity of the overuse of the words catastrophe, disaster and calamity with all of the adjectives that can go with those words. It seems that the majority of the British public, (Brits…no offence caused, I hope) thrive on the negative. There is nothing like a disaster (9/11) to sell newspapers or get people tuning into the TV news.
Do we really want a recession, credit crunch etc. No of course not. But nevertheless there is a fascination with big companies going into bankruptcy or thousands of people losing their jobs.
Today’s journalists have learned the art of spin from some excellent teachers. It really is not too difficult to make no news into big news with a bit of a spin or the right inflection in the voice. May I suggest that you try just for one week to resist buying a newspaper. Switch off the radio news and don’t tune into the TV news…you will survive. Then buy The Week Magazine because the stale news will keep you informed but will hopefully preserve your sanity.
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