Why we don't understand the corporate media
Ask a top management person in a Japanese automotive company what his business is and he'll say "making cars". Ask a person in a similar position at an American automobile company and he'll respond, "making money." And that is why Japan makes better cars. And that is also why Detroit saw the problem as a marketing issue rather than an engineering problem. But what does this have to do with news?
American business leaders see themselves are marketing products. That is how they see their job selling products to make money. Doesn't matter if it is soap, soup, cars, prescription drugs; or news; a product is a product. We see news as information, while they see it as entertainment. Sure, they also see it as a way to sell other products such as politicians. That is no different to them than making movies to sell toys, just another commercial tie in. That explains why their response to complaints about the lack of hard news on CNN is to shuffle news people and programming. Your product not selling? Maybe you need new packaging. Perhaps a younger "hipper" anchorman would make the swill go over better.
That is the bad news. We are not penetrating the corporate consciousness. The business leaders are interchangeable with the political decision makers. They approach politics the same way. Rove is a master at marketing. Marketing experts are taught that anything can be sold with the right packaging and strategy. This last election helped prove that.
As long as we naively are confused and expect them to do the "right thing" that we will get nothing. Because they don't know what the right thing is. They see themselves as doing their job which is to make money. Just as Detroit may go belly up making cars that people don't want, the corporate media will continue to feed us swill as long as we continue to consume it. Stories about missing pretty white girls is a popular product.
The good news is that sometimes if demand a product and back our demands with money we can have an effect. The now appearing stories about DSM are an example of a product delivered after much demand.
Can we do this? What is the best way?
