The "short attention span" of Americans

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2003-02-05 12:31am

WARNING: PROVOCATIVE TOPIC

Having been forced to listen to Fox News's coverage of the orbiter breakup almost every hour of the day by my father (who used to work for NBC) has made me come to the following conclusion:

It's not the fault of the American people for not giving a rat's ass about certain events.

It's the fault of the goddamn American media for force-feeding us rehashed tripe about a "disaster" 24/7, to the point where nobody wants to hear, much less talk about it, anymore.

Now that's just my opinion. Any flames or comments?

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2003-02-05 12:34am

No I agree...

The Sniper(in MD, DC, VA)

Even 9-11 to a point.

The media literally pounded it into people, that honestly I couldn't stand them...the events sickened and made me feel pain...but I truly could not stand hearing the media...keep spouting off the same thing every time I heard it on the radio or television.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2003-02-05 12:34am

Crayz9000 wrote:WARNING: PROVOCATIVE TOPIC

Having been forced to listen to Fox News's coverage of the orbiter breakup almost every hour of the day by my father (who used to work for NBC) has made me come to the following conclusion:

It's not the fault of the American people for not giving a rat's ass about certain events.

It's the fault of the goddamn American media for force-feeding us rehashed tripe about a "disaster" 24/7, to the point where nobody wants to hear, much less talk about it, anymore.

Now that's just my opinion. Any flames or comments?

That's how I feel about 9/11. I just stopped watching the news after a while.

Post by **Gandalf** » 2003-02-05 12:36am

I hate stuff like that, after 9/11, for 3 days it was literally non-stop coverage of the rubble, which sucked, every 10 mins, more footage of the crash for those who hadn't seen it ad nauseum.

Post by **Gandalf** » 2003-02-05 12:38am

Forgot to add this in my previous post, I really hate when they do an interview with a relative of someone who has just died and they ask, "How do you feel." How do they fucking think they will feel, a relative has just been killed in a disaster.

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2003-02-05 12:38am

The media has been doing this for awhile, constantly pounding every tiny detail into your head every minute until you explode.
You hear it over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over ad nauseum.

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2003-02-05 12:39am

Let's not forget the wonderful competition they do, upon seeing which news crew can get the most tragedy out of an event.

Alferd Packer · Post by **Alferd Packer** » 2003-02-05 01:14am

Huh? Are you guys still talking about that?

OHO I MAEK JOEK.

Personally, I could give a rats ass what's said on the news. I get my information from the N.Y. Times, if at all.

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-02-05 01:21am

It gets really bad when they just constantly have the same thing. I think that they should report new developments, not just rehash everything over and over again.

Typhonis 1 · Post by **Typhonis 1** » 2003-02-05 01:31am

Pirahna have more decency than TV NEWS crews ACtion news 6 and Chopper Dave will get you the live information....I say we declare an open season on those roving news crews the environmetalists would applaud the effort

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2003-02-05 01:32am

American capitalism, free market competition, and sensationalist journalism at work...I think.

What a wonderful country we live in.

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2003-02-05 01:33am

True...not as good as it could be...but then again we have places like NK...where one wonder how the fuck it happened in the first place.

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2003-02-05 01:52am

Typhonis 1 wrote:Pirahna have more decency than TV NEWS crews ACtion news 6 and Chopper Dave will get you the live information....I say we declare an open season on those roving news crews the environmetalists would applaud the effort

I'll start loading up my old jet with Blue Steel type nukes.
Hunting season is in session............. Spare no one, no matter how cute.

Post by **Dalton** » 2003-02-05 08:43am

At my local news station, we actually report on other news.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2003-02-05 08:50am

The modern media hams everything up, I don't mind reporting more on major events, but 11/9 seemed like the end of the fucking world!

But then I hate tabloids that report their frontpage on some celeb marriage and have something resembling news people give a shit about on page 35.

Kelly Antilles · Post by **Kelly Antilles** » 2003-02-05 09:03am

I agree. THey do this with every little thing, from a kidnapping to something as big as this. Just get over it, let the police/military/etc. do their jobs and let us live our lives.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2003-02-05 09:07am

This reminds me of the sheep in my Playwriting class. They fret over the media filling their heads with worry and not shutting up, but they don't bother to ignore the God damn stuff in the first place.

Wicked Pilot · Post by **Wicked Pilot** » 2003-02-05 09:39am

The cable news networks are sheer bullshit. They always report on the same goddamn thing 24/7. They do next to no investigative reporting on any real issus. Huge blocks of their time are taken by talk show host who simply comment on what has been reported on from the last six hours. If it's Fox News, the only thing they discuss is some liberal somewhere saying something liberal.

Go watch Nightline, that is a good example of the American news industry.

Nathan F · Post by **Nathan F** » 2003-02-05 09:46am

The majority of the media will say or do anything for possible ratings. Once they see something that might have a possibility of attracting a few people, then they will jump on it, it doesn't matter what effect it will have on the situation. The sniper case in point. They gave the guy a nickname, 'The Sniper', and hours of publicity. The media are the ones that kept the thing going for so long. If they had just reported it happened, and let it die at that, then it probably wouldn't have happened as much as it did. But, then again, it got them ratings, who cares if 2 or 3 extra people died because of it

salm · Post by **salm** » 2003-02-05 11:04am

it´s not the medias fault. the media are privat tv stations which want to make money. they make money by selling time for commercials. the price of the time goes up with the amount of people watching the crap they broadcast. the people are the idiots who make the ratings high.

it´s the people´s fault. they watch it, they´re responsible for it.
there is something called the "off-switch" and there´s something that´s slightly bigger and slightly more extreme. it´s called the trash can. that´s the place where you put your TV if you´re sick of it. nobody forces you to watch the shit they´re airing.

it´s a time wasting device anyway. worse than the internet. get a decent newspaper. and watch movies on the dvd player of your computer. that´s better anyways since there are no anoying commercials.

MAHOK!

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2003-02-05 11:26am

That's true. Nobody forces you to watch.

What I'm saying is that the media DOESN'T have to wring these events to death. They could get just as good ratings by shutting the fuck up and going back to other news after, say, one straight day of covering the topic. They don't have to re-play the same tapes over and over ad nauseum. They don't have to restate the events that have happened so far EVERY 5 MINUTES! They don't have to invite self-proclaimed authorities to yap their heads off on-air!

That's what I'm more disgusted with: the "sensationalism" that the media has. I don't give a rat's ass about watching TV; as far as I'm concerned, it's a useless waste of time anyway. But hearing the latest on the big disaster of the week ANYWHERE I go, even if I don't want to hear about it, is what's so damned annoying.

And about your remark on the ratings, unless the people throwing their televisions away are participating in a ratings sweep, it's not going to matter one bit to the people running the TV stations.

What I'm saying is basically... don't they know when to stop? To stop rubbing it in? To stop making such an ass of Americans internationally? (Like it or not, most of the opinions you see in other countries about the American people are formed by our media conglomerates and our mega-corporations, not our people.)

Post by **Dalton** » 2003-02-05 11:38am

Television won't stop its long descent into banality. We are the intellectual minority. Most of the people in America are mindless, mouth-breathing trend-zombies, and that's what the media more often than not sadly caters to. We should count ourselves very lucky that there's still niche programming on the cable channels, but network TV (with a very few exceptions) and cable news stations are long-gone with FOX at the head.

salm · Post by **salm** » 2003-02-05 11:49am

Crayz9000 wrote:That's true. Nobody forces you to watch.

What I'm saying is that the media DOESN'T have to wring these events to death. They could get just as good ratings by shutting the fuck up and going back to other news after, say, one straight day of covering the topic.

well, honestly i´m not sure about that. but since they DO the reruns again and again it seems plausible that they make MORE money by that. either by getting higher ratings or by saving production costs. it´s a re-run after all.

They don't have to re-play the same tapes over and over ad nauseum. They don't have to restate the events that have happened so far EVERY 5 MINUTES! They don't have to invite self-proclaimed authorities to yap their heads off on-air!

true, true. they basicly dont have to. they do because of the money.

That's what I'm more disgusted with: the "sensationalism" that the media has. I don't give a rat's ass about watching TV; as far as I'm concerned, it's a useless waste of time anyway. But hearing the latest on the big disaster of the week ANYWHERE I go, even if I don't want to hear about it, is what's so damned annoying.

hmm... what do you mean with "anywere i go"? you mean stuff like tvs put up in shopping centers, restaurants and bars?
yes that´s fucking annoying, but again, not the medias fault.

And about your remark on the ratings, unless the people throwing their televisions away are participating in a ratings sweep, it's not going to matter one bit to the people running the TV stations.

nah, that´s not what i said. i didnt recommend to throw out your tv in order to lower the ratings, but in order to get rid of a time eating, brain numbing device.

What I'm saying is basically... don't they know when to stop? To stop rubbing it in? To stop making such an ass of Americans internationally? (Like it or not, most of the opinions you see in other countries about the American people are formed by our media conglomerates and our mega-corporations, not our people.)

no, they dont know when to stop. they dont give a damn how people see america internationally because they only give a damn about the amount of money being transfered to their bank accounts.
btw, it´s not only the american media, it´s the media world wide or at least the media western world wide. news (and most other stuff) broadcasted by privat channels is nothing but sensationalistic bullshit or selfadvertising

this brings me to another thing i hate about the privat channel news. one topic of pro7 news is to sum up what the sitcoms "sex and the city", "ally mcBeal" and some other trash show are about. what the fuck???
news = selfadvertising???

The Janitor · Post by **The Janitor** » 2003-02-05 11:50am

The Media in America is pure BS I went there for a holiday once & I had never heard so much total crap in my life. Later on I got cable & there were a few American news networks on the TV & nothing had changed it was still pure BS.
If I were watching that crap, I could be forgiven for believing the world consisted solely of America & that Hollywood was the actual center of the universe.
Some bitch took cocaine/shoplifts/has a stolen porn video, who cares?

If I were American I’d demand the execution of every media exec there is, write to your senators or whatever.

Dear Senator Pratt

It has come to my attention that the media companies of this country seem to think I am stupid & that they can get away with feeding me this crap that they happen to call ‘news’. I would therefore like to suggest a mass execution of the executives of these media companies. If my suggestion has enough public support perhaps we could have an election to decide on the method of death my own personal preference is for them to be ‘buried alive in a pit of stinking sewage’. Ironic!
Thank you
Yours Sincerely
The Janitor

P.S. if you disagree with my suggestion i'll assasinate you & all your family

Interesting fact that whilst the Murder rate in the US has fallen by 40% this decade the Medias coverage of Murder has gone up 600%!!!

Post by **Zaia** » 2003-02-05 11:54am

For the most part I agree, but in situations like the sniper incident, where my school was in lockdown for about two weeks, I think a lot of coverage is appropriate. Knowledge of where the last attack took place, possible sightings, theories of what the van looked like, how many people were involved--this information was changing constantly and helped me deal with the questions and concerns of a couple hundred confused and frightened kids (and some of their parents).

In this situation, it was rather unsettling that my local news only reported the updates, since every time I turned on the news during that time, there was a new development. Usually those 'developments' were more deaths, one of which was witnessed by my friend's mom. Anyway, the fact that they didn't rehash the same material over and over just made the whole situation scarier, because I knew they were only reporting when they had something to say, and they reported often.

StarDestroyer.Net BBS

The "short attention span" of Americans

The "short attention span" of Americans

Re: The "short attention span" of Americans

The Media should be microwaved!