How to (Potty) Train Your Corporate Media “News”
How to (Potty) Train Your Corporate Media “News”
(rant begins here)
Foul-mouthed and disgusting to read and listen to, you wonder how corporate media (mainstream bi-coastal “news”) keeps their viewers and readers.
Not too surprising, they’ve been losing their customers at a steady rate for years.
Recently, one evening “news” program got “number one” after a couple of decades trailing. Their secret? They didn’t lose as many viewers as the others. Wow, what a success story.
TL;DR:
Get your (real) news from Flipboard and your own feed-reader.
Subscribe to Medium.
Ignore all social media and corporate media, especially their “news.”
Get paid apps to eliminate ads. Freeze all the built-in apps you don’t use.
Cheaper than Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime? The Wal-Mart $5 DVD bin. Buy once, watch forever.
Wal-Mart has real and friendly people, Amazon has troll-bots. Consider which makes more jobs…
Their problem is that corporate “news” media are leaving at least half of the nation behind them. Extremist minorities aren’t popular with the majority of people. Terrorism isn’t popular. Crime, conflicts, and endless suffering aren’t popular. These make people tune out.
Their problem is with corporate media producers, who insist on being “over the top” with their reporting. In our teenage years, these people were known as “drama queens” since everything was a big dramatic production in their lives.
While all good (and a lot of bad) stories are built based on “conflict”, that doesn’t always mean actual physical wars and killing people. The stress in a story is from a goal opposed by an obstacle. That is all there is to a plot “conflict” in any story. (See the über-prolific William Wallace Cook’s “Plotto”.)
What is actually popular online is how-to stories, and lists of things you can use to improve your life-style or mindset.
Our “News” programs are tragic, unresolved violence. 99% of the time, they never show what happened to resolve it. Like big trials. Unless the outcome is going to provide civil unrest, then they won’t show it. Natural disasters are only shown if human lives are at risk. Wildfires in Wyoming are unreported, no matter how many cattle or wildlife lives were lost. But wild fires affecting knuckleheads who build in canyons and mountains with trees all around their houses, in areas where wild fires rage periodically — those get big news.
Does corporate media “news” ever come back to the Hurricane and Tornado Alley sites to show the rebuilding? No.
Do they ever show people how to prepare for emergencies and have proper shelters ready just in case? No.
Death and Destruction reign supreme.
Media companies have “news” channels to simply sell ads for drugs. And you can tell how valuable these programs are, as they are mostly scheduled when people don’t want to watch.
The trick is, they could actually segment their programming in order to give the different populations what they want when they want it. But corporate media is top down, built with tone-deaf executives who consider “everyone” wants their tragic programming.
The difference to this is independent media such as Netflix and other streaming sites. You select what you want and download them when you want them. Much like podcasts. Content you can use — without all the ads and noise.
TV and “News” Are Dead. So Is Facebook.
Facebook is and always has been a media company. People hardly interact on Facebook anymore. They just visit to check up and get sad. All social media, according to recurring surveys, make people sad. That’s their result. Thanks a lot.
Social media are all lumped into this. They are there to sell advertising. And the advertising is a scam. Facebook seems to be routinely revealing that — oops — they miscounted views on any ads you bought. So you overpaid for under-delivery. Sorry, again.
Facebook got into live streaming, and is now the leader in violent crimes and suicides being committed live on video. Attaboy.
I don’t know when social media is going to get a clue. Advertising on any platform is unwanted, a pariah, a loud, interrupting, non-sequitur, noxious guest at a social event where you wonder why you are there.
And so, people tune out. What you have left on Facebook is reportedly just older lurkers. The younger users seem to have gone to other platforms, and are moving off those just as quickly.
Small wonder that “millennials” are now reading physical books more than their parents.
Some businesses have found out recently that when post a political view on Facebook (even that “police are nice people”) your workers will get death threats and quit. Affects both left and right. Why is a business even on Facebook or depend on Yelp for “reviews”?) Social media is a destructive scam.
Advertising and Facebook are walking zombies. So is Twitter and the rest. Consider your choices. Sad or glad?
Corporate Media “News” is Addicted, not Addictive.
There’s a lot of reports about media decline, especially by media watchers like Pew. Stuff they could use to improve their viewer-experience. Would they only listen and read…
People have been using ad-blockers for years. And now you can get several browsers that have this built in. (My favorite right now is Brave.) Advertising sucks because it’s crap content. Unwanted, unselected, enforced. The replacement is Content Marketing, where they give great value with helpful links to click on. Blogs and stuff. Go to Content Marketing Inc. and you’ll see tons of examples where this is done right.
Media is addicted to advertising. They don’t have a real product to sell other than that.
“News” media is Twitter-centric. But can you get a job or effectively sell any product on Twitter? No. Yet for all the record negative press the corporate media is giving Trump, they always have his tweets in there. The same way they got him elected. Addicted.
There was an old idea that went around: “if the media is that nasty about (subject) there is probably something really good there.” And so, since most people distrust the news, they flip around anything that’s reported and check it out on non-”news” sites instead of avoiding it. They are looking for good stuff.
Sad makes more sad. “News” media upsets people every night with their death and destruction reports. So for them to constantly promote and repeat social media just compounds the angst they are creating. Figures that they can’t leave Twitter alone.
Now, this isn’t just extreme leftists doing this. Not just social justice warriors. The conservative “news” outlets also do this. They are playing gotcha with the gotcha-questions from the gotcha-reporters. The bulk of their articles are about hypocrisy and moronic actions that the leftists are up to. And the RINO’s. Any hypocrasy or “do as I say, not as I do” actions. Yet they are just as bad as the people they are reporting on.
So you want to tune them out as well.
You have choices to potty train your own corporate media “news” feed
You don’t have to accept a steady flow of crap coming from your TV and “news” apps. (It’s surprising our living rooms and smartphones don’t smell like feedlots…)
Check out Flipboard. You can block any source and tell Flipboard what you don’t want to see in your feed. Magazines that push really bizarre theories as fact can be muted, sites that only want to rant about identity issues can be removed from your feed.
And that is really the only “social media” that’s useful. Uninstall the rest from your smartphone, or freeze them if they were pre-installed. You don’t need them, you never have needed them. Go join a real club to meet real people.
And get a feed reader, like Feedly. The paid app has no ads and when some site is pushing nonsensical, and useless junk, you can simply unfollow them. No more nonsense and noise.
While you’re at it, upgrade to the ad-free versions of the few apps you actually use.
And check out Brave or other ad-blocking browsers. Frankly, the sites that paywall their content (where you’ll still see their ads) don’t need your business.
If you want real quality articles to read, subscribe to Medium. No ads, quality content which is chosen by your vote.
Turn off your TV or watch with the mute on. Listen to weather forecasts online and read a book otherwise.
Disconnect your cable. Cheaper than Netflix and Amazon Prime: the $5 DVD bin at Wal-Mart. Buy once and watch over and over. They also sell collected sets. Order online, ship to store for free pickup. Go talk to real people when you shop.
97% of America has a Wal-Mart within 10 miles. And they have real people working there. Amazon seems to mostly employ troll-bots to respond to their emails. (Except for complaints to jeff@amazon.com.) Talk to the people at Wal-Mart who are trained to be friendly and helpful. Bots don’t have families to support. Wal-Mart has created more jobs than Amazon every dreamed of.
Your Life Reflects Your Choices
If you are upset by what passes for “news” or sad from social media or cable or broadcast TV, then maybe you should drop those out of your life.
Get your news from channels you can control. Flipboard and Feedly.
Visit stores where real people work. Buy inexpensive DVD’s at Wal-Mart.
Cut ads out of your life. You don’t need to be interrupted all the time. Freeze apps you don’t use. At least turn off their notifications.
Read quality articles on Medium. (Even their free version doesn’t have ads.) Visit a local bookshop and get some real books. Or your local library. If they don’t have what you want, you can order them.
You’ll probably be a lot happier.
Your choice. If you don’t let others make your choices for you.
Start now.
PS. Do you find me on social media? Not really. I syndicate my stuff there, but never try to “engage” there. Flipboard is just about it. I really don’t care about what you say about me on social media, as I won’t ever see it. Try being nasty on Flipboard and you’ll be blocked. Subscribe on my Living Sensical site and you can send me an email, which I’ll answer.
Originally published at Living Sensical.