cannabineer
Ursus marijanus
It reminds me of when the market researchers began to use focus groups hired from the consumer base to style and otherwise spec proposed new products or upgrades.
There is a heck of a cynical component to doing this with a source of outside information. This used to be the province of magazines that catered to a specialized audience, like Mototcyclist or Woman’s Day or that bête noire of pediatric waiting rooms, Highlights.
But now a supposedly primary source of breaking news sprinkled with analysis segments is being forced into the mold of customer focus groups! Get news neatly filtered free of shit you don’t wanna hear.
(and that’s how we have distinct populations with entirely different basis sets of supposed facts.)
The other component that operates at the executive level is editorial bias. An organization run by, say, Murdochs will slant its coverage toward what papa Murdoch wants the base consumer to absorb and eventually believe. An editorial bias toward reduced regulation and taxation makes Murdochs and other big capitalists happy. So it becomes important to sell the contradictory idea that electing legislators who will pursue the favored agenda is in the interest of the base consumer/voter. The will of the people is to be gently and relentlessly steered.
It’s propaganda on the largest scale and with a very long but robust feedback cycle. And it looks like counteracting it is difficult. At its worst, it feeds back into what schools are allowed to teach, knocking out a curriculum in critical thinking, which is the natural enemy of an outcome-based [dis]information industry run for profit — and for the ultimate removal of the peskier features of a republic.
