I have not been following the Ukraine story in great detail. But I have been struck once again by how the US media covers these situations. In the immediate aftermath, it immediately clicks its heels, salutes the flag, and regurgitates the official government line without seemingly any critical examination.
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The Daily Show returned from its vacation and immediately went after the cable news channels for their appalling coverage of the missing airliner. In the clips below, they mentioned some crazy speculations that even I had not heard about.
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So it seems like the most likely outcome of the Malaysian Airlines MH 370 flight has come to pass, and that it ended up in the ocean with no survivors. It is not clear that we will ever know what caused the loss since the plane is believed to be in one of the hardest to reach regions of the ocean.
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In popular media culture, when you have three similar things happening, then it automatically becomes transformed into a ‘thing’, a trend, something to be imitated and repeated and reported on until everyone gets sick to death of it.
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It is fascinating to see the evolution of the 24/7 news channels when they seize on one event out of many to devote almost their entire coverage. If the issue is not resolved quickly, the nature of the coverage descends into more and more bizarre speculations, almost completely unhinged from reality. Often these stories are about missing young women but the current one about the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 follows that familiar pattern and the news channel HLN ended up having a psychic to tell viewers what she had ‘seen’. You can see the segment here.
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It is a truism in the marketing industry that the 25-49 age group is the one you should be chasing. Not being a marketing guru, I am not quite sure why this is because it seems like older people in general are the ones with more disposable income, while younger people are dealing with the expenses of starting out in life, raising family, etc. Maybe it is because older people are more set in their ways and can’t be easily persuaded to chase after the next new thing or adopt the latest fashion.
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Fox News is a favorite target of Jon Stewart who mercilessly lampoons their pretensions to being a news organization. It must clearly get under their skin since they know that young people watch the show in large numbers and this is the demographic TV lusts after. Every once in a while, someone at Fox decides to try and fight back.
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I had never before heard of L’Wren Scott until her suicide was reported yesterday. This is not surprising because although she was apparently a highly gifted fashion designer whose work was sought after by many celebrities, she is not a household name for those who do not follow the world of fashion, unlike Dior and Vanderbilt and others who also serve a mass market and advertise widely.
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Abby Huntsman, daughter of failed Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman. has like many children of well-known politicians, parlayed her family connections and fame into a career as some sort of media personality. And as is the case with media personalities, they feel free to make assertions on policy matters with little attention to facts.
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There has been much discussion about the benefits and costs of social media. On the one hand, it enables people to form communities and relationships with like-minded people without proximity being a factor. This has been a boon for people in low-density population areas or who have interests shared by just a small fraction of the population. But one downside is that immediate physical communities may suffer as people withdraw into their virtual worlds.
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