We see it all the time. Some article about a story and how it is not getting coverage. The media always ignores the stories that really matter. How can we live in a world where this happens!
Not only are these posts wrong, they cause the story to be ignored.
You heard me right. When someone writes one of these articles they are actually reducing the attention to the thing they are pushing. There are three straight forward and simple reasons for this.
1. It is a false narrative.
Most of these type of articles saying this thing is happening and media isn’t covering it and then refer to a news article. My recent “favorite” of these lately was referring to the Louisiana floods and it not being covered… While linking a USA Today article! I had just seen that story lead the national TV news an hour earlier.
While that is an extreme example it holds true for nearly all of these articles. They will link to a story produced by someone working in media. It is also the fact that the very thing you create to complain about media coverage is itself… wait for it… media coverage! Which leads into the second reason.
2. The article is now about the media, not the story.
Whatever the story that is not being covered by the media is now second fiddle to the media not covering of the story.
Have you ever started a conversation complaining about the media coverage that you didn’t end up talking about the media? You waste valuable eyes and brain time on something that has nothing to with what you want people to actually know.
Media, especially now, needs to be on point all the time. Unless your greater point is about media coverage, don’t open with it.
3. People see the hypocrisy and don’t click.
Perhaps early on when this idea started it helped clicks. But the media has been blamed for not covering a certain story since the 80’s. (the 1680’s) Most of the people I talk to avoid clicking on these stories.
As the Gawker headline tropes become recognized, their effectiveness declines. We are over saturated with media people saying media coverage of the thing I am in the process of covering is horrible. It is hypocrisy and I won’t participate.
The thing is we now have greater influence over the media than ever before. Every time we click and share a story, that story moves up on the recommendation algorithms that rule content from that media source. We literally have the power to control what gets big media coverage.
Yes we should keep pointing out big media’s shortcomings, but doing it while promoting a story that you want to be big undermines its influence. Let’s not waste good efforts on blaming media that undermines good stories that need to be told.
Bytes of Infinity 