Media Trivialization of the Federal Election

The trivialization of our electoral process has begun. It all started Sunday with the, get this, live coverage of Harper's walk to Rideau Hall. Live coverage? This is nothing more than the theatrics of political ritual with no meaningful content, yet the media gives it live coverage. Perhaps they think Jean will tell Harper, "well, no, you cannot dissolve parliament."

The media seems to think it is necessary to fill air time and column inches with a quota of material even if there is not that much substance to report on any given day, or even every hour on the hour. Thus they often focus on the trivial. Get ready for long discussions about colours of ties and dresses, and, when the candidates go casual, how many buttons they leave undone at the tops of their shirts. They may even bring in experts to expound upon the importance of buttons to the candidate's message to voters.

The media will also periodically complain how the candidates and their teams craft their glib answers to questions that are really just oft-repeated campaign slogans. The same media will then go on to only quote those very same sound bites in their reports. They may even analyze them in great detail to add depth.

Why do they do this? What is the benefit? Who benefits?

The media tend to over-hype predictable and lengthy events like elections since it is one way to draw an audience and sell advertising. Federal elections fit their need nicely now that the summer olympics are over. More air time means more ads. So they inflate the trivial to draw an audience and keep them glued to their television sets in order to maximize profit. They know that a large fraction of the population is vulnerable to entertaining coverage so that it what they seek to do - entertain, not inform.

Certainly they will report on consequential matters as they arise and, apart from the afore-mentioned live coverage of the Rideau Hall visit, what I did hear today was actually pretty good. However the election has only started so there is much that is new and fresh. Within a week or two I expect we will have to wade through lots of dross to find useful material. They will carefully space out the good bits so that we are exposed to more ads, and therefore the trivial stuff that fills out the otherwise empty minutes in between. Election coverage is an excellent example to support my previously-stated view that all streaming media news is a waste of my time.

I believe it will be better to use the internet for election news, even if only to visit the sites of the very same media outlets. Just avoid the embedded streaming media and other trivial content so you can better use the time to learn those thing that will inform your voting choice.