INDCJournal: The Media's Search for Dramatic Tension

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January 21, 2005

The Media's Search for Dramatic Tension

Posted by Bill

Ace highlights a passage about media bias by Ron Rosenbaum that I agree with wholeheartedly:

I witnessed the birth of the "Theory of Moments," which changed the very nature of broadcast news[,] which was devised by then�CBS News President Van Gordon Sauter. Mr. Sauter believed that broadcast news, the evening news, should reconceive itself from an anchor, like Mr. Cronkite, reading descriptions of events accompanied by illustrative film to a broadcast that offered us visually dominated emotional "moments." Moments in a filmed report that wordlessly reflect the emotional depth left out of news-reading reportage. Feelings. That TV news had a mission not just to give us Mr. Cronkite�s "That�s the way it is" but something more, something that only the camera can communicate: "That�s the way it feels." ...
I think, in fact, it might be worth dwelling on the origin of the Theory of Moments, since it plays an often-unacknowledged role in the way broadcast-news stories are structured: reaching for Moments� moments of feeling, moments of visceral emotion�no matter how manipulative.

Exactly. Bias bred by a need for drama co-exists with bias rooted in political ideology in the hearts of newsies, especially those in the TV end of the business. I wrote about this when I interviewed CBS Evening News employees about their story that used both bogus draft scare e-mails and an undisclosed activist as an interview subject:

Truth be told, none of my conversations with the CBS News employees led me to believe that any of them had any overt, conscious partisan malice, and I don't regard this incident with quite the same severity that's reserved for the National Guard story. But I also think that political bias and motivations can be internalized, and that there exists another form of prevalent bias in the media, especially in TV production: the need for tension in the story. Even if we were to remove the larger partisan implications of timing involved with raising the draft issue, CBS was certainly motivated by the need to create dynamic tension between the worries and beliefs of an "everyday" mother of two potentially draft-eligible sons and the contrary public positions of John Kerry and George W. Bush. Without the tension, without the worry and without the conflict, there's no story.

The phenomenon of deceptive news presented to ceate artificial tension is at least as prevalent as political bias. And the two factors often converge to stunningly deceptive effect.

Posted by Bill at January 21, 2005 12:17 PM | TrackBack (0)

Comments

Excellent point, and well stated. I suspect the �bias toward tension� is even more wide spread than pure political bias.

I have observed this effect as I have traveled across the country and watched local news broadcasts (I am a certified news junkie). It seems there is a direct relationship between the size of the market and the amount or drama or tension present in the newscasts, although are distinct regional differences too. I always suspected that the larger market stations had larger and �better educated� staff, so they could put more effort into emulating the big boy, network broadcasts.

Back when local broadcasts were easily available over satellite, I would sometimes watch coverage of identical stories by stations from various localities. The differences were especially noticeable then.

Posted by: jmaster at January 21, 2005 12:53 PM

Bill,

I agree with your analysis of the use of emotive elements in news broadcasts and the impact they have. Bias is inherent in the use of such elements, whether used by CBS, CNN or FOX. In fact, I think it is impossible not to have bias. The act of choosing an illustrative element or story indicates a certain bias. It boils down to whether the choice was made to deceive, educate or both, and whether those watching can make the distinction.

Posted by: Munir Umrani at January 21, 2005 12:59 PM

Munir -

Bingo.

Posted by: Bill from INDC at January 21, 2005 01:00 PM