Double Standard

Why are some things given an abundance of attention from the media and other things aren’t? In Paris two brothers kill 12 people. It is broadcast live as citizens use their cell phones to send live video. This story is the center of attention in the media for days, yet at the same time 16 villages are attacked in Nigeria and hundreds, possibly thousands are killed, yet the media hardly makes mention of the event. There are many things that contribute to what stories get attention from the media and what stories don't.  Things like:

·         Is it an unusual or an everyday event?
·         Is a group the media or world likes to demonize involved?
·         Is the solution to the problem quick? or will the solution take many years?
·         How do society and the world frame the problem?
  

Although, all of these things do contribute to what stories get covered in the media and which ones do not, I would assert that we the audiences ultimately decide what stories will be covered in the news. Gone are the days where public television was free and there were only 3 stations to choose from and major broadcasters decided what stories should be covered. Today television is paid for and we choose where we will get our information. The news is a business and they need to make money. The networks must compete for our attention, not only with each other, but with the public at large. With technology in the hands of almost every citizen we tell the media what we what to hear about. It is what we are tweeting about and posting on social media sites about. The media knew that we wanted to hear about the killings in Paris because that is what we were talking about. No one was in Nigeria posting live video about what is happening there. Twitter is not alive with messages.

We like to demonize the media and say that they are slanting our view on the world, but are they? Aren’t they just giving us what we want? If it wasn’t what we wanted we wouldn’t be consuming it and keeping it alive. If we want to get a different story, we will have to send a different message.