Posted by OK, with up to 30% of the pages of papers regurgitating yet more of “That Sorry Story”, this is not going to support anybody’s version of events. To my mind, rights or wrongs, it is neither interesting or important.
That is what came to mind for this Post: Who decides what is important enough to become News?
Who decides what is News? Who makes the final decision to label any incident “News”?
We The People? Is it now run by what we can best describe as the “Twitterati”?
Do the people now decide what is News by their Vote? Are we all living in a “Soap Opera”?
Certainly control of the News has traditionally been the intention of corporations, unions and political groups. They spend money to influence the public and thus gain dominance. As such they try to persuade the News Media what is news and what is not. That process, by all appearances, is a perfectly run system. But, no matter how perfectly it may be run there is one flaw: News is also about Money.
I am not sure of the source of this statement but it must have been written by somebody well informed about the News business: “It is not a conspiracy theory: it is just a fact.”
Sell Something
You have to spend money on getting your message out to the people who you might want to hear it. It is in the DNA of the News Business. There is no money in the News Business unless that news sells something. At its most basic there are always adverts in the newspaper between everything you read. Further up the scale it might be the stories are promoting who runs the country next.
Take sports stories. It seems that most people have their favourite sports. But do we feel that from their sporting endeavours people warrant their high prices and “newsworthy” status?
What about stories of people who were born into money and do stupid things? How about those who made a lot of money, and died comfortably in old age, but lacked a passion in life. I wonder about their lack of enthusiasm. I cannot see that what these people do is News.
Perhaps you feel the same way?
The News Business is vulnerable to negativity from sources that are not within their control. We are exposed to news media from local to national and sometimes worldwide. News comes in many different formats. Some might be facts, or at least based on well researched facts, but this is not always the case.
The most dangerous “News” is that based entirely on Opinion. I would even go as far as to say that there are stories printed which have no factual basis whatsoever. Sometimes a news organisation will even run it as their main front page. They are more interested in selling their papers than checking for truth.
There is a source for every piece. If you get this right and quote the opinion piece properly and in context, you will be credited for that. If you get it wrong and quote uncritically, without providing context, you can wind up on the front page of a newspaper for all the wrong reasons.
The more you learn about the News Business, the more obvious these pitfalls seem to be.
Be Critical, Be Very Critical
This is much the same for those of us in Entrepreneurial Businesses. It is very easy to become enthusiastic about a New Product which may appear to have a lot of promise. It may be promoted by “everyone” and you will be having at least half a dozen emails about it every day. It does not mean that it is a great product – not the next best thing. Not the “Push Button Money Maker” that some of its promoters would have you believe.
Always check for yourself. If you are going to promote a product then it is best to first trial it critically. Only then will you be sure that your own customers will be happy with it.
So, yes, some business opportunities may turn into Princes (or Princesses) when you “kiss” them. But good business is knowing enough to avoid those which will always remain Frogs.