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"We're at that point in the election cycle where everyone is in full-on hate-the-media mode—and not without reason. From Matt Lauer's bizarrely imbalanced questioning of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, to Trump consultant Corey Lewandowski's access to endless free airtime as a paid CNN analyst, to the false equivalency debate over the Clinton and Trump foundations, there's plenty to get mad about.
So far, so familiar. People get mad about the media during every presidential campaign (and most of the time in between, too). But this year, there's something more deeply problematic going on, and it's rooted in the economics of online media. That's something journalists—and people who read journalism—need to grapple with, because we're all participants in the toxic feedback mechanism involved.
A good way to understand this mechanism is via the three words most often used to characterize what Donald Trump expresses, and feeds: Fear, hate, and anger.
Fear. Hate. Anger. Most pols appeal to these emotions in some way, but Trump doesn't just appeal. He embodies, draws out, expertly modulates. Like a three-chord song, his campaign is an endless rearrangement of this basic vocabulary. Fear plus hate. Hate plus anger. Anger squared. Fear with an undertone of hate.
Why does this work so well? Part of the answer has become painfully obvious: It resonates with cultural bass notes that are stronger than many people believed. Racial resentment, economic anxiety, social dislocation. You can argue which one plays the biggest role, or whether all three reinforce and build on each other.
But there's a fourth factor, and this is where journalists need to look in the mirror: A growing part of this profession, our profession, is also coming to depend on fear, anger, and hate."
More here: http://www.motherjones.com/media/2016/09/fear-hate-anger-click-machine
So far, so familiar. People get mad about the media during every presidential campaign (and most of the time in between, too). But this year, there's something more deeply problematic going on, and it's rooted in the economics of online media. That's something journalists—and people who read journalism—need to grapple with, because we're all participants in the toxic feedback mechanism involved.
A good way to understand this mechanism is via the three words most often used to characterize what Donald Trump expresses, and feeds: Fear, hate, and anger.
Fear. Hate. Anger. Most pols appeal to these emotions in some way, but Trump doesn't just appeal. He embodies, draws out, expertly modulates. Like a three-chord song, his campaign is an endless rearrangement of this basic vocabulary. Fear plus hate. Hate plus anger. Anger squared. Fear with an undertone of hate.
Why does this work so well? Part of the answer has become painfully obvious: It resonates with cultural bass notes that are stronger than many people believed. Racial resentment, economic anxiety, social dislocation. You can argue which one plays the biggest role, or whether all three reinforce and build on each other.
But there's a fourth factor, and this is where journalists need to look in the mirror: A growing part of this profession, our profession, is also coming to depend on fear, anger, and hate."
More here: http://www.motherjones.com/media/2016/09/fear-hate-anger-click-machine
