America is currently as divided as it has ever been at any point since the Civil War. A big part of that is our media landscape, which operates under intense pressure from the profit motive and is thus hyper aware of how conflict moves the needle.
It’s across all facets of news, including sports, and perhaps Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Chris Paul said it best: “every time you see something in our league, on broadcast, what does it say? Oklahoma City vs. Portland. It always says ‘vs.’ So they almost always trying to put us against each other, never trying to unite and do things together.”
Paul said these words at an event launching his next business venture, Players TV: Athletes on Demand, adding that his new network is “about bringing everyone together.” With media always under high pressure to generate ratings, clicks, interactions, product sales etc, what follows online is only natural. You get a lot of eye-catching and attention retaining content like quizzes, top 10 lists, slide shows and sensationalist headlines. When there is no fear or controversy, the media will manufacture and supply it for the reader.
When there is no outrage or backlash against anything, you still have a handful of social media users out there ready willing and able to get angry over nothing. The media, sadly, amplifies this tiny minority of people and presents them in a way that gives them much more credibility than they deserve. Unfortunately that is the world we live in, where media consumers want information, but don’t want to pay for it. News consumers are also much more drawn to the tragic and scary news items than they are the uplifting, and that’s rather unfortunate as well.
We had an exclusive with former NFL tight end Vernon Davis, who is also involved in Players TV and we discussed the challenges of the media landscape. Specifically, how social media has put the media industry on it its head.
“Now social media that has changed the game,” Davis said at the launch event held at Tavern Club on Michigan Avenue during NBA All-Star weekend.
“Social media is the new thing, but it will be around for the next 3-400 years, cuz everyone loves it, it’s on demand, you can communicate with anyone…it’s access.”
In today’s media and social media landscape, consumers are usually going to outlets for confirmation and verification of their beliefs, not to acquire new information. That’s why our country is so divided right now- we can’t agree on basic facts anymore. Hopefully, there will be more outlets like Players TV, who seek to provide information directly from the source, without an intermediary and the spin that sometimes comes with it.
That would definitely go a long way towards, as Barack Obama puts it, “making the truth get eyeballs.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
You can follow Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com on Twitter here and his cat on Instagram at this link.
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