This is a clip from the Daily Show about the media’s portrayal of the so called “Summer of the Shark” in 2002. Steven Colbert investigates and finds that it is actually the “Summer of Anything”.
Why do you think the media tends to turn small stories into large headlines and major news?
Do you think it is ethical for the media to use scare tactics in order to increase ratings?
Can you think of any more recent examples of the media taking a small or non story and turning it into major news?
I think this clip is hilarious and I agree with what is being satirized here. I do believe that the media turns certain stories into major headlines to increase ratings. Smaller stories are easier to cover and cost less. From a business standpoint, it would be smart to put smaller stories on the air that can be made into huge headlines. This makes putting the news on the air more cost efficient, and makes the business more profitable. And, if people tune in to hear about shark attacks and other ridiculous stories, why not give them what they want? Furthermore, I do not think this an ethical practice, mostly because a large latent purpose of the news is to inform the public, and giving spotlight attention to unimportant stories to increase ratings somehow seems wrong to me.
ReplyDeleteFrom the clip, it can be seen that media turns small stores into large headlines meanly for making money. They may exaggerate something and use scare tactics to cause people's attention in order to increase rating. The clip satirically criticizes this business strategy. There are also other types of examples like this, for example, the gossip news about stars or public figures.
ReplyDeleteI believe the media tends to turn small stories into big headlines because it is more cost effective for them to do this and also it is easier to make a small story into a big one than it is to find a big story. I do not believe that it is ethical for the media to do this, it can cause people to panic and overreact about something than what is needed. Also it can be misleading and misinforming such as with the sharks and how the media made them out to be man hunters when in reality the likelyhood of being attacked and killed by a shark is very slim.
ReplyDeleteI think it indicates that the media is trying to produce some scare news to attract people's attention. In one hand, it is easy to fulfill the goals in quantity, not in quality.In another hand,it saves money to forwarding a piece of new from another media. As a transmitter of spreading news and information, media is playing a significant role in society. However,it seems that nowadays the attitude of media is changing and for its own profit, it is not very responsible for what it spreads, which sometimes may lead people a misunderstanding of something and give people a wrong "common sense", such as the shark killer.
ReplyDeleteThis clip is very funny and I agree with it completely. The media takes so many minor issues and turns them into "disasters" that they want everyone to worry about. They do this so people will continue to watch their program for updates on the "disaster". There have been many times in recent history that the media has done this. One example is with the illnesses the swine flu and the bird flu. The media predicted major loses to these "devastating" diseases, but the outcome of these sicknesses were no where near the horror of what the media described.
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DeleteIs using scare tactics to increase ratings ethical? Not quite.
ReplyDeleteBut can we blame the media for using this strategy? Not really.
The media can use any strategy they want in order to increase their ratings, but in the end, we, as the audience, makes the decision of whether or not their sales increase. The only reason businesses are using scare tactics to increase ratings is because this strategy is working. In fact, we are the people who make it work for them. This is because we believe in everything the media says, and when it's about something potentially dangerous and can harm our well-being in any way, we believe it even more, even if it does not seem rational or logical. We need to use more of our judgement and intuition instead of just taking in everything the media gives us.
Nonetheless, this clip was really funny, and I enjoyed it a lot.
The news thrives off the "scare tatics" to capture the worlds attention. Robbery, homicide, robbery, accident, another robbery will not attract anyones interest per say but if they throw in "Oxygen: How it can kill you tonight at 10pm" then you have the viewers undivided attention and the panic ensues.
ReplyDeleteThe news definitely makes something out of almost nothing. They take the smallest things that happen and that no one would care about and make it big news. They make very interesting and captivating titles to capture their viewers and then its usually nothing. Especially on the news, they will highlight one story that they know people will want to know about or make it sound like people will want to know about and they advertise that segment that doesn't usually come on until the end of the news anyways but make their viewers watch the whole time. They exaggerate and give half-truths to make things seem more interesting than they really are and call it breaking news.
ReplyDeleteIn the field of communication theory, medium is a perspective which reflects a unreal world and a more violent world than the real one to us. And ironically, most of the medium companies are taken in charge of by the government or some governors. To some degree, medium is a tool of making money for those people. The most important reason why they will turns small stores into large headlines is to make profit. What we can see from some mainstream medium is not the fact happened in the real world where we live in.
ReplyDeleteAnna brings up a good point in saying that we, as the audience, are the ones who allow the scare tactics of the media to work by continuing to whatch. Does anyone alse agree that people often fall into the media's plan and alow their tactics to continue? Does anyone disagree?
ReplyDeleteI agree that people often fall into the media's plan and allow their tactics to continue. We, as viewers, fuel the fire. William brings up a good point that a catchy title that could possibly affect the viewer can get us all hooked. I also liked the example that Richard used about the swine and bird flu. There outcome of the disease was very minor across the country, but the media took advantage of the hysteria and exaggerated every detail. As viewers, we could choose to give in to what the media exaggerated, or gathered concrete evidence.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that the media does tend to make a huge spectacle of such small events just to boost ratings. A big headline that has been coming up in the past years would be the big issue between Athletes or celebrities and their use of social media. With tweets being constantly watched and turned into a big spectacle by ESPN could be relevant in this time.
ReplyDeleteit is really interesting to see that exageration was used everywhere in this video, surprisingly, we are afaid of every possible thing in this world that might damage our lives. It is obvious that we totally overeacted. Like the old lady said in the clip, she seems to be experiencing dangers every single time. Think it is really plausible that the author is trying to get audience involved by pulling a lot of attention in the slow motion and pictures.
ReplyDeleteThe media tends to exaggerate some reports quite often. One of the most frequent reports are the issues on global warming. Whenever we have a hot summer or warm winter, the news brings up reports pushing the fear of global warming. I find that funny since we just did a satirical piece of global warming.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this clip the satire was quite successful. Not only did Stephen crack at the news he also acted as a person affected by scare tactics. Although very exaggerative it was hilarious.
I love the reporter asks that "do the coconuts (kill people) for food or just sports?" in the interview with the coconut attack experts. It is really funny to see the transactions from the horrible shark attack into coconut attack events, which sound really ridiculous and ironic. When the beach emergency is caused by sharks, all the frightens and scared behaviors look reasonable and understandable because we all know how brutal the sharks are. Nonetheless, it could just show people's overreactions to those threatens if it becomes events about coconuts.
ReplyDeleteI strongly believe that it is completely unethical for the media to use scare tactics in order to raise their ratings. Even though, to themselves they're just another show on tv, many of the viewers take what they say as the truth. All in all, I found the clip very humorous while addressing a major issues with media in the United States.
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