The Laughing Wolf

Within The Media and most communications efforts that have anything to do with journalism, there is real journalism, entertainment writing, opinion writing, and advertising. These have different histories and purposes, and bad things happen when the lines between them get blurred.

As stated previously, real reporting gives facts in an honest and balanced manner. It does not lead you, suggest what you do, or in any other way attempt to coerce you towards a particular view. Having this type of information is a keystone of the great experiment that is America, and was one of the reasons for Jefferson’s famous quote "The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them."

Now, it is interesting to note that President Jefferson had his run ins with the newspapers of the day, just as modern politicians do. Even then, there was considerable debate on what constituted reporting and what was other. Indeed, Jefferson got in one of the best shots when he remarked "Advertisements... contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper."

He also made two quotes that are very applicable today, especially when taken in the broader sense of The Media. "I deplore... the putrid state into which our newspapers have passed and the malignity, the vulgarity, and mendacious spirit of those who write for them... These ordures are rapidly depraving the public taste and lessening its relish for sound food. As vehicles of information and a curb on our funtionaries, they have rendered themselves useless by forfeiting all title to belief... This has, in a great degree, been produced by the violence and malignity of party spirit." This was echoed in "Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day."

Entertainment writing is how I refer to human interest and similarly done feature stories. They do present a lot of information, but can hardly be called fair, balanced, or non-coercive. They are approached from a particular point of view, often from the eyes of a “victim” of some sort, and through such loose all journalistic credibility. They are great means of exposing a wrong and encouraging some form of change, but less than beneficial towards rational discussion of an issue and determination of the optimum means and method of change. I refer to it as entertainment writing in part because its roots like back in the 1800s when tales of frontiersmen, the wild west, and other characters were the genesis for this style of writing (IMO). Other writers caught on to the fact that putting people in, and telling the story from the viewpoint of a given person, caught the reader’s attention and hooked them on the story and on the publication. This has been used to great effect, such as forcing reforms in the meat processing industry, and to great shame as in the falsified stories of Janet Cooke and Jimmy’s World.

Opinion writing has a long and prestigious history in the United States. In many ways, it was the early leaders of the states, and then the founding fathers, who made it an art form. Since there were no mass means of entertainment as we have today, dinner and party conversation often saw presentations in rational discourse in which selected speakers would hold forth on issues ranging from natural history to political science. The speakers were engaging, thoughtful, and presented their positions well. This speech was to convert, but it also allowed for the possibility of conversion in the opposite direction.

As time went on, this expanded and such conversations became debates of sort, and were of interest far and wide as problems with England grew. The various options for action and inaction were laid out, as were the costs and benefits for each. This debate spilled out of the drawing rooms of the day, and into pamphlets and such that were carried out to the wider world. In this way, the general populace was informed and presented with the relative merits for each position and was able to judge between them.

This gradually moved from the politicians, as the intellectual founding fathers moved on, and became the province of journalists, academics, and others who were able to continue the tradition. From this, we get today’s columnists, pundits, and broadcasters who provide opinion-focused writing.

Advertising is a means of paying the bills for communications outlets. It began because printing was expensive, and some means of defraying the costs of the press, ink, paper, and such was needed to make mass printing feasible, either for journalistic or political ends. Ads have always been both a blessing and a curse, as they are needed but they also have the ability to corrupt coverage. An advertiser can, has, and does influence coverage by either buying more or paying more when they like how things are done, or by taking money away when they do not. Good communications outlets have clear boundaries between advertising and business and the journalistic side of the house.

In previous posts, I have touched briefly on changes in technology and how it affects The Media and communications. In reviewing the history of journalism and communications, there is a concept that needs to be brought forward for consideration.

As any technology develops, it goes through clear phases. There is the initial single purpose, then a move towards general coverage, and then a focus on specialization. In newspapers, this can be seen in the original broadsheets, which then moved into newssheets and newspapers that covered all possible topics, then a switch towards a particular audience or a particular subject matter. Magazines followed a similar path, growing out of newspaper and political pamphlets to devote to a specific subject or goal, then becoming the general magazines of the day, and then evolving into a legion of magazines each focusing on a different topic or specialty area.

All media follows this trend, and it shapes operations and plans in The Media and in any communications outlet. Getting on the right side of that curve means being extremely successful and making money. Being off the curve means loosing your shirt. So, most outlets keep this theory in mind as they start or as they try new things.

-30-

NEXT