This is Fox News
We recently got Fox News at home, the first chance for me to get a glimpse at that much reviled channel on the American right wing, which is an attempt to counter that noted allegation that reality has a liberal bias.
It's a very interesting channel to watch, and as a general trend it's probably getting as much air time at home as the proper news channels such as the venerable BBC News.
You may have rightly gotten the impression that our household takes it less then seriously, but it is hard to justify coming to any other conclusion about it. I have never seen as deliberate attempt to spin news as entertainment, and to keep it simple and stupid so as to not confuse the recipient too much by actually supplying them with information.
The formula itself is quite simply dissembled, there are many anchors, the issues are covered in a banter format and issues are dealt with frequently but always in tiny doses, measuring at most a few minutes. There is no attempt at indepth discussion, comprehensive analysis or the frequent procurment of experts to provide a depth of analysis that the news anchors are themselves incapable of providing.
The end result is news lite, an attempt to focus on inconsequential stories and a gloss on the important ones to treat them in a entertaining rather then substantive manner. It barely deserves to be called a news channel, but it certainly is enjoyable to watch, especially if you're actually informed on the issues they are presenting without any attempt to convey information because you can focus just on their slant.
I just wouldn't actually reccomend it for anyone who isn't informed, and given that the vast majority of the American public is woefully informed, Fox News is a rather depressing phenomenon.
It's a very interesting channel to watch, and as a general trend it's probably getting as much air time at home as the proper news channels such as the venerable BBC News.
You may have rightly gotten the impression that our household takes it less then seriously, but it is hard to justify coming to any other conclusion about it. I have never seen as deliberate attempt to spin news as entertainment, and to keep it simple and stupid so as to not confuse the recipient too much by actually supplying them with information.
The formula itself is quite simply dissembled, there are many anchors, the issues are covered in a banter format and issues are dealt with frequently but always in tiny doses, measuring at most a few minutes. There is no attempt at indepth discussion, comprehensive analysis or the frequent procurment of experts to provide a depth of analysis that the news anchors are themselves incapable of providing.
The end result is news lite, an attempt to focus on inconsequential stories and a gloss on the important ones to treat them in a entertaining rather then substantive manner. It barely deserves to be called a news channel, but it certainly is enjoyable to watch, especially if you're actually informed on the issues they are presenting without any attempt to convey information because you can focus just on their slant.
I just wouldn't actually reccomend it for anyone who isn't informed, and given that the vast majority of the American public is woefully informed, Fox News is a rather depressing phenomenon.
1 comment:
I actually don't like these news channels much. A typical news session may last 15 to 30 minutes, which is followed by a break before the next session comes on. Problem is, in that short time there is nothing new to report, so it's essentially a repeat of the past session. I don't understand why anyone would put a news channel on for more than 30 minutes, but I have seen it happening.
Oh well, who am I to talk. I don't even have cable, and I catch all my news online, where I decide which topics are important enough to invest time to find out the details.
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