Communications

Newsweek’s recent written cover story, “The Rise of the Rest” was extremely thought provoking. It discussed a post-American dominated world, not because of the decline of American power, but because of the rise of the rest. The author, Fareed Zakaria, makes some very interesting points. A point I’d like to focus on is this: The world is in better shape than it ever has been. However; because of 24-hour news and the Internet, it doesn’t appear that way. The news covers every bomb going off, every assassination attempt, every earthquake, etc., giving the appearance that the world is going to Hell and fast. The media has not figured out yet how to put things into perspective. Zakaria:

“Why do we think we live in scary times? Part of the problem is that as violence has been ebbing, information has been exploding. The last 20 years have produced an information revolution that brings us news and, most crucially, images from around the world all the time. The immediacy of the images and the intensity of the 24-hour news cycle combine to produce constant hype. Every weather disturbance is the “storm of the decade.” Every bomb that explodes is BREAKING NEWS. Because the information revolution is so new, we—reporters, writers, readers, viewers—are all just now figuring out how to put everything in context.”

The media has enormous influence on how we perceive the world. Politics feeds off of this, end-of-world fears are what got George W. Bush elected, McCain is using the same tactics. And the democrats are using economy fears to garner support. So, let’s use the latter as an example. Zakaria makes this point:
“It [the American economy] has enjoyed unusually robust growth, low unemployment and inflation, and received hundreds of billions of dollars in investment. These are not signs of economic collapse. Its companies have entered new countries and industries with great success, using global supply chains and technology to stay in the vanguard of efficiency. U.S. exports and manufacturing have actually held their ground and services have boomed.

“The United States is currently ranked as the globe’s most competitive economy by the World Economic Forum. It remains dominant in many industries of the future like nanotechnology, biotechnology, and dozens of smaller high-tech fields. Its universities are the finest in the world, making up 8 of the top ten and 37 of the top fifty, according to a prominent ranking produced by Shanghai Jiao Tong University.”
A recession is based on consumer spending habits, which is greatly influenced by the media. When CNN mentions a possible recession every 20 minutes, of course we’re not going to spend and thus stimulate the economy. A vicious cycle. If we do descend into a recession, I think we have only the media to blame and the politicians that jumped on their bandwagon. And, of course, our gullible selves.

The old adage rings true, ‘don’t believe everything you read.’ (tough for a PR guy to swallow)