Gardner on Journalism

Here I'm letting David Gardner's book, Science of Fear, speak for itself. There is a whole chapter on the media, and considerable reconsideration of its conclusions in the final chapter.

"Fear means more newspapers sold and higher ratings, so the dramatic, the freightening, the emotional and the worst case are brought to the fore while anything that would suggest truth is not so exciting and alarming is played down or ignored."

"Journalism is not run by a scientific formula. Decisions about a story being newsworthy come from the head, the heart and the gut." -- quoting NPR's Sean Collins

He concludes with three culprits for the increasing fear in the West: "The brain, the media and the many individuals and organizations with an interest in stoking fears."

Gardner's hardest shot from the final chapter:
"The media are among those that profit by marketing fear - nothing gives a boost to circulation like a good panic - but the media also promote unreasonable fears for subtler and more compelling reasons. The most profound is the simple human love of stories and story telling. For the media, the most essential ingredient of a good story is the same as that or a good movie, play, or tale told by the campfire: it has to be about people and emotion not numbers and reason."