Ads on the News.
There’s ads on the news. Why are there ads on the news? Can’t we have a news media source that doesn’t depend for all its existence on ad revenue?
Yes, that’s what I really want to spend a few hundred words writing about. Ads on the news. I don’t necessarily think it means advertising clients control the content of the news, but it certainly motivates the media company to present the news in emotionally manipulative ways, with the aim not to inform the public so they can make better decisions as a society but to generate as much urgent attention as possible so that the advertisers can divert that emotional energy toward sales. Every time we see a headline and actually decide we must read the story, and get wrapped up in it, and feel (sometimes appropriately!) upset about what the world is coming to, we’re immediately shown some ads, and they’ll capitalize on that angst and unsettled feeling to offer you relief in the form of a purchase; and because of The Algorithms that have been quietly observing your personal tastes and values are selecting the ads you see, it’s probably a purchase you’re already leaning toward wanting.
“But that doesn’t happen to me. I just ignore the ads!” What if I told you that’s just what the advertisers want you to think?
Most people underestimate their own vulnerability to manipulative advertising, and that’s perfectly natural, because all of us have an unconscious bias toward any belief that makes us feel good about ourselves. We tend to hold onto those beliefs even in the face of evidence to the contrary, such as actual scientists doing rigorous scientific studies of how biased human beings are. So, because human beings aren’t especially likely to accept that they themselves are easily manipulated into irrational, counterproductive beliefs and behaviors, that science about biases and vulnerabilities in cognition isn’t mainly being used by individuals arming themselves against manipulation. It’s being used by institutions, corporations, and media agencies to manipulate individuals — for instance, via advertising.
Marketing campaigns are designed by skilled teams of people who might have as much as a master’s degree in marketing, and despite what you might have read in the comics section, marketing can be a highly sophisticated field of study. Marketers spend their careers drawing on a combination of psychology, design, computer science, and neurology with the explicit intent of leveraging all that knowledge to convince a lot of people buy something, whether they need it or not. No matter how rational you think you are, a good marketing campaign — the best money can buy — is capable of swaying you. Large corporations spend billions of dollars every year on marketing. As a result, those ads are siphoning away not just a few seconds of our time, but our motivation to act on the things that are happening around us in productive and meaningful ways.
That sense of agitation and anger and fear that we get from an upsetting news article? The kind that sometimes erupts in large-scale protesting and organizing and activism? That’s the impulse Pepsi tried to turn into a desire to buy a bottle of delicious sugary carburetor fluid in that ad we all laughed at last year, the one with the Jenner kid. That ad was a bit mis-aimed and saw backlash, but that’s not typical of major marketing campaigns. The ones that are most successful are the ones you don’t even remember being exposed to, even when you find yourself unconsciously drawn to spending money on something you’ve never really wanted before. By then it’s easier to just say you had a hankering for it or had been hearing good things about it so you might as well give it a try, than to examine your own behavior under a microscope and figure out that you’ve been intentionally manipulated.
And that’s why I don’t think advertising in news media is a threat merely because it introduces a potential economic motive for journalists to portray the news in a more pro-business, pro-capitalistic way, although that is certainly a serious problem. The bias that kind of dynamic creates is a bias toward news items and reporting styles that attract urgent, emotionally-charged attention but don’t inspire immediate, productive action. Because if your readers run off to devote their time and efforts to political movements and direct action or even just phoning their representatives, your advertisers have lost a potential sale. And the ad clients will be able to tell the difference. They’re keeping track of which ads in what places are resulting in sales, and adjusting their ad space purchases accordingly. If you’re a news editor trying to generate maximum advertising revenue, it pays to tell your readers that terrible things are happening in their community, but not give them a clear path to a solution, so that they’re left with a vulnerable, helpless feeling that your advertisers can convert easily into a desire for snacks or pretty toys or a tee-shirt with an anti-establishment saying printed on it.
What if, on the margins of every politically-relevant news story, there was contact information for the reader’s own local representatives in government instead of an ad for a thing? What if there was a link to information about how to run for office? Or relevant activist organizations with volunteer opportunities or educational resources? What if these were the only advertisements on any news media source? Or even just one website, which could also be relied on for credible, accurate reporting, and widely used throughout the country? If I’m not very wrong, this could result in a significant increase in meaningful, productive responses to serious problems in the world. But we may never be able to test that hypothesis, given the current condition of the news media. I would love to be proven wrong about that.
Until then, it may be up to readers to train themselves to read between the lines and channel their vague feelings of dissatisfaction and angst into more than just passive consumption. Personally, I’m channeling mine into armchair punditry, but I’m still on the lookout for other methods.
