Hot Topic - UK Newspapers
Every tabloid editor knows what moves eyeballs. It’s a skill passed on generation after generation, unbound by geography. Dirt on celebrities and politicians is fine but nothing beats that grainy photo of a well-known somebody starkers. Brilliance is causing talk on the street, any street, and maybe a lawsuit. Leveraging a better business deal is genius.
For the news media to speak truth to power assumptions are that power – and the powerful – are not coagulated with those speaking, lest confusion reign. Power may be the ultimate social force, bigger than money and often more fun. But confusion is a force unto itself when sown carefully into the fabric.
There is an obsession in many circles with that select set of individuals who principally own big media companies. Some are reclusive and others thrive on attention. Few are at a loss for opinion on the way the world works and, certainly, the way it affects their business. And they do like things to be the way they want them.
For the news media’s most piercing voices scandal is stock in trade, titillation is currency. The public has, it seems, an insatiable interest for stories that bring the rich, powerful or simply well-known back to earth. Feeding that human instinct is an unbeatable business model.
Being number one means never having to explain the small things. Reaching into page view, audience and circulation figures for that competitive edge is risky. Like everybody else in this 140 character new media world, media people want just the headline. Details are so messy.
The public is confused. Business leaders are confused. Politicians are confused. With all that confusion, the best game going is something like Trivial Pursuit. Except in this game the winner eats the other players. Yumm!!
There is no thrill greater than walking right up to that edge, wiggling your toes over it. Some people feel it when jumping out of a perfectly good airplane. Landing, intact, is reward of the metaphysical kind. Worrying about bad things and consequences are for wimps and little people.
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