You too, can be a Republican...
Apparently, its pretty easy to do. All one need do is learn to talk the talk, (and possibly disguise/obfuscate/hide the walk).
An article appearing on Slate's web page tells of a study done of the various news media to detect one particular political slant or another. The study is limited to a right-left comparison, (Dem-GOP), but it is not inconceivable that it could be broadened and sharpened to detect leanings on particular issues.
This particular effort sampled the language used by various media outlets reporting on various topics to make a guess as to any ideological slant that might be present, then compared the results of the analysis to a well known yardstick of bias---speeches presented on the floor of the US Congress. The analysis picked out certain phrases and assigned them either right or left leaning biases, then applied that scale to the language of the media. If you are interested in beefing up your Democratic or Republican credentials, (or possibly going undercover), the list of catchphrases can be found here.
The study that drives this delightfully Orwellian tome, also goes deeper into perceived slants in the media, comparing any potential bias with other data, such as the demographics of political donations in the coverage area of an outlet. Not surprisingly, it found a definite correlation between the leanings of the consumers of news and the leanings of the news outlets.
I read the study far enough to note that at least one of the authors compared news to entertainment, in terms of its playing to its target audience, as well as in terms of the content of its offerings.
It doesn't surprise me too much.
Right now, I believe that there is too much news, in terms of recitations of fact, but not enough perspective. Some things are factual but not really relevant to anything. Other things are factual and shocking, but not really significant in the overall trend of events. We need news sources that can be concise, brief, and put things into perspective.
We need less news right now, and more quality to make up for the drop in volume.
An article appearing on Slate's web page tells of a study done of the various news media to detect one particular political slant or another. The study is limited to a right-left comparison, (Dem-GOP), but it is not inconceivable that it could be broadened and sharpened to detect leanings on particular issues.
This particular effort sampled the language used by various media outlets reporting on various topics to make a guess as to any ideological slant that might be present, then compared the results of the analysis to a well known yardstick of bias---speeches presented on the floor of the US Congress. The analysis picked out certain phrases and assigned them either right or left leaning biases, then applied that scale to the language of the media. If you are interested in beefing up your Democratic or Republican credentials, (or possibly going undercover), the list of catchphrases can be found here.
The study that drives this delightfully Orwellian tome, also goes deeper into perceived slants in the media, comparing any potential bias with other data, such as the demographics of political donations in the coverage area of an outlet. Not surprisingly, it found a definite correlation between the leanings of the consumers of news and the leanings of the news outlets.
I read the study far enough to note that at least one of the authors compared news to entertainment, in terms of its playing to its target audience, as well as in terms of the content of its offerings.
It doesn't surprise me too much.
Right now, I believe that there is too much news, in terms of recitations of fact, but not enough perspective. Some things are factual but not really relevant to anything. Other things are factual and shocking, but not really significant in the overall trend of events. We need news sources that can be concise, brief, and put things into perspective.
We need less news right now, and more quality to make up for the drop in volume.
posted by eccentric recluse at 6:07 PM
6 Comments:
Thanks, that's good to know. Never can tell when I might need to pretend I'm republican. Maybe for Halloween. That oughta be scary. I like your "attempting to give a damn" icon. Funny. Can I steal it? Hmmm... Your avatar's looking rather buff and undercover superhero-ish. Now I'm getting the urge to draw some funny avatars for myself.
I think you should draw a few avatar's, you could pass them around as xmas (or other holiday) gifts. the GAD button came from special correspondent JB, I will look up the code and post it...
Having checked my machine's date/time settings, I see that Google is a day or two behind the times....
Posted Saturday Dec 9, 2006.
•Thanks, ER and Special Correspondent JB.
•Sounds like a good idea about holiday gift avatars. I have to find out who wants one though. I wouldn't want anyone (including you) to feel obligated to use them.
•Strange about the time. You can change it by clicking the settings at the bottom of the screen where you would edit the post, then re-post it.
Ooh. Ooh. I want an avatar!
-Roy Not that you'd be able to see it on your non-beta blogs
Roy, you want an avatar? I would be happy to do one for you. Do you have an email, or maybe you can write to my email (in my profile) and tell me a little about the sort of avatar you would like.
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