~The Transformation in media technology has altered government communications strategy. “The biggest White House press frustration is that nothing can drive a news cycle anymore,” Mark McKinnon, the media adviser, said. “In the old days, you could say, ‘we’d like October to be about the environment’.” Today, a vicious news cycle swallows most White House strategies. When the Berlin Wall went up; in 1961, President Kennedy was on vacation. “For six says, no one pressed him hard for a reaction,” Beschloss said. “If that happened now, president Obama would have three seconds.”~
I thought this part was very interesting, it really shows that bad habit of instant gratification we want all the time, and for the president if he’s not ready to respond in seconds then he gets all the shame. I just feel that it really isn’t fair to the president, how much does he do in a day? More then, I’m sure anyone can imagine, he’s not running a classroom he’s running a country. Yet the media seem to forget this, it’s fun for them to build up hype about bad things the president is doing because it gets a reaction from their audience. It’s amazing how fast technology has grown, but when it comes to the media, it seems we haven’t quite got the hang of how to use it. The Media Advisor for Obama can’t even really help control what the press is saying. In the old days people used to love the presidents they were glamorous and respected and most of all they had control over what was said about them. Hoover is a great example of why you don’t want to cross the president, he killed many people with his own troops trying to run people off of a protest against him, these days it’s the media that is almost controlling the president. As the media gets stronger we are going to need stronger and stronger leaders that won’t let such awful media take over.
I agree with most of what you have said in your response. The media is definitely in control of the president when it comes to decision making, he has to try to answer everything so that it won’t upset people and find a middle ground between sides. Auletta says “When Obama was running for the senate in Illinois in 2004, his two main opponents in both parties were destroyed by the release of their respective divorce records,” this is a perfect example of how the media is in control. They chose to let out this statement intentionally ending the two candidate’s chances of winning, why does it matter if someone was divorced? Just because they didn’t work out with someone doesn’t mean that they are not going to follow through in their position as senate…. The media could have stopped digging for blackmail but they gain power through these efforts. In the beginning of your response you said “I just feel that it really isn’t fair to the president, how much does he do in a day?” He is the president, he knew what would happen if he got the position so I don’t really believe that he worries to much about how much he is doing in one day, it is a stressful job yes, but he fully knew what was in store.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that not only are the Presidents are becoming less important (glamorous), but so is other topics in the news. Because the stories are being needed right then and there, it makes the previous ones seem less important. As Americans, we are now starting to do the same with the Presidency. " Eight to sixteen times a day, Chuck Todd, of NBC, hustles from his cubicle in the White House basement to a patch of grass nicknamed Pebble Beach, where he conducts standup interview for Nbc and MSNBC." This passage relates because it shows how many stories Todd must talk about so it loses focus on the previous ones.
ReplyDeleteI don't disagree or agree with you. I think that our president is very strong. He can't react right away because he is only human too. I do think that the press play a H U G E role in society. They tell us what to believe and why. They make money by selling rumours and false information, that is what they do! They want to change everything around and make people look bad because that is their job. Just like in magazines such as PEOPLE. They try to make Lindsay Lohan look like a train wreck by selling false information that isn't reliable. But the same magazine will also make President Obama look like a God. People feed off of the attention others get. My mom is obsessed with People, for example, and she needs to be in the "know" but she doesn't care that all her money is going to assholes who are just selling crap that a know and making it seem reliable.
ReplyDeleteInstant gratification has been around forever. Now in society we have computers and IM messages. We get to know everything RIGHT a way. I don't think this is a bad thing. It just helps us know valuable information right when it happens instead of a week later. When something really hits home, the person or family wants to know right away whats going on, not wait. For instance, my best friend is in the Army. He can't text me at all. He writes to me and its horrible sitting around waiting for a letter when he could just call me from a phone! I know thats guilty on my part, but that is how society is today and it isn't going to change.
The news press' job is to make Obama look like crap. They make thousands of dollars by writing a tiny article about how Obama did this or that he did that. It isn't that its true, its just what the press whats us to think. We aren't always getting our information from reliable sources and thats the problem. We are so galliable that we will believe anything! Look how many people believe we will die in 2012. This isn't something that can be changed. They are simply rumours with no value but still drive people insane. The media is aware that Obama is a good president, but they like to make people look like shit just like bitches like to make the pretty girls feel down upon themeselves.. they like a reaction and they want to feel highly of themselves.
I'm totally with you when you say "Yet the media seem to forget this, its fun for them to build up hype about bad things the president is doing because it gets a reaction from their audience." It's not fair that the president of our country gets looked down upon, for such ridiculous things. In my passage, it states: "A center for Media and Public affairs report round that in Obama’s first fifty days in office he received more than three times the coverage than his processor had.” Of those magazine articles, television shows and newspaper headlines- they were showing scenes of the president eating M&M's or describing Michelle Obama's work out plan. Like really? It blows my mind that citizens of our country, have no other way to spend their time than to pin point our leader for such bogus things. It’s almost sad, that people need that instant gratification of knowing where Barack Obama is, what he is doing, what he is wearing, what he is eating- just so they have something to post to the tabloids. He is a normal person, just like everybody else- not some alien that deserves to be hated on and stared at. Like you said above, we need to prepare ourselves for when media becomes extremely strong, and attacks innocent people even more. Like said, a strong leader that doesn't let appalling media take over is crucial in this situation. This is a good example of something we need to practice, ignorance. If we train ourselfs to ignore those magazine shelves and television specials- maybe, just maybe they will go off the air and off the shelves.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Instant gradification has become a bad habit. For peope to expect a well thought out idea or plan of action from the president so quickly is unfair. We have become so impatient and it is forcing use to replace accurate news stories with fast pace "pro-conflict" reporting. We have chosen to favor a more gossip style of news media than the more thought out, biparticin approch a few decades ago. Now days we care less about what a story says and more about the time we get it.
ReplyDeleteTristan i completely agree with the whole divorce factor, there is the hole seperation of church and state, it's almost as if we also need seperation of state and homelife. Im not sure which governor it was, but it came out that he was homosexual. It was the bigest controversy, I just don't think these issues should have anything to do with what they are doing in their workplace. Media has gotten out of control and honestly i don't think they are helping our politicians do their jobs.
ReplyDeleteTypical Jayne- I agree with you too. stories are getting ran over and not even looked at very close. One day we are talking about terrorists and the next about the president and how he is so horrible. I feel that rather then them trying to get their facts straight they are trying to make it as dramatic as they can, as quick as they can.