wikileaks
Out of context: Reply #543
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I was talking about politics with a friend of mine recently and he offered an interesting theory on why radio is so completely dominated by right wing talk show hosts. To give some background for people who don't live in U.S., commercial talk radio here is 90% dominated by conservative political shows. And not even intelligent ones but people like Sean Hannity and Michael Savage.
Anyway, his theory is that being dependent on advertising, but without the large audience reach or production values you have in other media, companies are forced to shape their programming with the goal of cultivating a particular kind of audience...i.e., the most gullible, easily persuaded segment of society possible. After all who do you think you'll sell more used cars and commemorative U.S. coins to, people listening to "Masterpiece Theatre" or Rush Limbaugh? The Limbaugh listeners are probably the same ones who actually go out and buy the Snuggie for their wife or trade in their family heirlooms in the cash for gold program.
This is the same dynamic you see in pay per click affiliate marketing on the web where the most lucrative offers are always the ones that appeal to the dumbest people (Acai Berry, colon cleanser, etc). Therefore what people might mistakenly view as ideological bias on the part of these media companies is really just driven by smart economics.
- But it makes you wonder if capitalism has the direct effect at times of making society stupid.********
- Not that this has much to do with wikileaks, just came to mind based on a couple of the comments above.********
- < i read that and i agreemrghost
- Yep totally! And i can vouch for that pay per click theory! It's very true! My CTR is about a fifth of what it should be and i am convinced it is due to the (generally) more educated user base.Sneakybadger2
- am convinced it is due to the (generally) more educated user base.Sneakybadger2
- -likesurfito
- But it makes you wonder if capitalism has the direct effect at times of making society stupid.