How Media Supervisors Influence What Information You Receive

If you click on this entry's title you can read a blog post by former Washington Times reporter George Archibald. Archibald claims to be the first reporter hired by the Washington Times outside of the original founding group. The Washington Times is a paper owned by the Moonies and is a wingnut media outlet. Now, this former reporter is a true believer, no doubt about it, and the reason why we are recommending his article is not that we agree with him. It is because his article contains fascinating examples of how editors and other media supervisors determine and define what is news.

Often media personnel like to deny how they shape the news by the story lines they chose to present. They act as if news stories just magically appear. Well, that is simply not true. There are literally millions of stories that the media could present, but only a relatively small number get presented. Every story that is presented appears because of the conscious decision of someone to present the story. In corporate media there are a number of such persons. There is the author of the piece, his or her supervisor, that person's supervisor, and depending on the importance of the story, maybe another person, perhaps the publisher, owner, or station manager.

These decisions are why labor issues aren't covered by most major news outlets while we hear about Anna Nicole Smith and her demise ad nauseum. These decisions are why the negative aspects of trade agreements aren't usually presented to the public and why, until recently, Bush was presented as just "a regular guy", even though he was raised, and remains, part of the economic elite of America.

It is also why blogs are much more individualistic in outlook. Usually they are run by one person, or a small group of people, and they have a particular bent or outlook. The writers are not supervised by people who may have a different agenda than the writer of the story. It is also why blogs can, if they chose, get ahead of a story, because the writer doesn't have to work through a bureaucracy, so to speak.