The Media's Bias Against Trump

It's common sense that the mainstream media outlets chose sides during the election. More specifically, it was out for Trump's head no matter what he did. Apparently Trump's camp caught wind of this and decided to take action. In this article, one of Trump's former advisors called out the four major networks - CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox for their liberal bias. Do you agree with Cramer? Read the article and comment your thoughts below.

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20161107/18090935988/congressman-former-trump-advisor-calls-hearings-media-bias-threatens-to-start-pulling-fcc-licenses.shtml

Smartphones & Their Affect On The News Industry

Smartphones are both a gift and a curse to the news industry. Before smartphones and apps, users only had one option to get news on their mobile devices: Their phone’s web browser (Kaikkonen 2). In 2008, Apple Inc. created the App Store which revolutionized the way people connect and use their smartphones. Through the use of applications, or “apps”, users could get The New York Times, or any other news source delivered directly to their device. Since the App Store’s inception, smartphones and apps have become essential for virtually any lifestyle. Smartphones can now be used to to check the weather, find movie times, and everything in between. In the context of the news industry, however, have smartphones become helpful or are they a hindrance?

Smartphones have enabled people to connect to their passions and favorite websites more than ever before. Businesses can now track their customers through smartphone usage. Sandy Felicetti, Retail Account executive for the Niagara Gazette, says that cellphones have helped the business side of the industry. “We track all of our stories and ads on Google Analytics,”

“We have users from Spain to Canada,” she said. “Before smartphones, that was never trackable.” Felicetti said that as a result of tracking, in the span of eight years the newspaper has grown to “250,000-325,000 unique visitors per month.” In this case, smartphones have definitely helped the news industry. People can now get their news instantly with the tap of an app and Felicetti’s perspective gives insight to how smartphones can help an industry flourish by incorporating smartphones into their business..

Smartphones have made tracking sales easier as well as the fact that news can be captured at any moment with a camera. Virtually anyone with a smartphone can capture news as it is happening and consumers can see the news in a matter of seconds. Mark Scheer, City Editor for the Gazette, says the addition of mobile devices in the news industry has helped for communication between him and his reporters. At the time of our interview, he had a reporter currently on the scene of a story. The event had just occurred moments before but there was already a story published online with a picture because the reporter was able to instantly send Scheer the information.

On the other hand, smartphones have hurt traditional sales of physical newspapers. “There has been a push to have everything online,” Scheer said, “Advertising has been hurt the most.” Advertisers no longer have to rely on newspapers to get the word out about their business because companies can now set up websites, Facebook pages, or apps for free. Smartphones can hinder the way news is delivered as well. News that is delivered to users via Twitter is only available 140 characters at a time, thus limiting space to report a story without using external links.

News can also be affected if the news source’s app has technical problems. A newspaper is a physical object thus it requires no technology to use it. An app is written similar to a computer program (Seyer 1). If one line of code is off then problems may arise and the app may crash, thus reflecting negatively on the company it is representing.

Smartphones are both a gift and a curse to the news industry. They help businesses with tracking and sales, which was untrackable prior to their creation. In addition, they have made it easier for reporters to communicate their ideas to the public. This is because reporters can immediately post their stories to the newspaper’s website and fill in any details in real time. Finally, communication between the reporter and editor is easier than ever before. Smartphones have also hurt the news industry, specifically in advertising. Advertisers have now been able to set up websites, Facebook pages, or apps and no longer rely on newspapers to get their name out. Another way that smartphones can complicate the news industry and the way news is delivered is through technical errors. Overall, there are more positives than negatives for the use of smartphones in the news industry.

Personality Profile

In the many years since its inception, the Internet has drastically altered the way businesses operate. The way we get our news now is exponentially different than the methods our grandparents and great-grandparents used. It’s easier than ever to get the information we seek - All it takes is a few clicks. In addition to the ease of access, most of the stories we read are happening in real time whereas our ancestors may have had to wait until at least the next day to hear developments in a story.

As a result of modern technology, newspapers nowadays have suffered. Someone who has seen this evolution firsthand is Michael Montagna, Automotive and Real Estate Executive for the Niagara Gazette. The Niagara Gazette is the local newspaper for Niagara County in Western New York and its surrounding areas. It has been in operation since the late 1800’s. Montagna, a Niagara Falls native, has been in the news industry for almost 30 years. Shortly after attending college for Business Marketing & Human Resources, he started working at the Gazette and has been there ever since. His job is to assemble the advertisements and the real estate section of the newspaper. When he first started, this meant that he literally had to paste and arrange the sections, while now it is all done on a computer. Technology has changed the way his industry operates.

“In the last ten years, we’ve seen small declines,” Montagna said, “We went from around 56,000 subscribers to 17,000.” Of course, the Great Recession was less than 10 years ago so the Internet isn’t exclusively to blame for the decline. Nonetheless, the demographic that remains is very loyal and doesn’t want to change. “People want their paper in the morning and we have to provide that service. $50 to a kid today isn’t what it used to be.” One of the main challenges that the print news industry faces in a digital world is to continuously have to prove that newspapers are still relevant to the Gazette’s biggest clients.

Along with the change in mediums, the news that is reported had to be filtered. The Gazette has six reporters on duty. The challenging part of this is that every single story might not be newsworthy, so some cuts have to be made especially with the digital version. This is a challenge that all reporters face: Trying to decide what the public needs to know based on demographics for a given medium. Certain age groups, such as the Gazette’s customers that have been subscribers for many years, tend to rely on physical newspapers while others may exclusively flock to the digital version.

Montagna also doubles as the real estate executive for the Gazette, and similar to the newspaper industry, the real estate industry has also faced challenges with the Internet as their competitor. As the Internet became more popular, real estate had to downsize its catalogue. Montagna put the section together twenty years ago. Since then the section went from 30 pages down to 10. “As modern technology evolves, so does your product.” he said.

Michael Montagna has many years experience in this news industry and knows exactly how much technology has affected the way we get our news. From having to literally paste his ads together to putting them onto a computer, he knows as well as any person in the news industry how fast it has changed. “It’s been interesting seeing how the news industry has changed over the years...I think if I can sell in this market and sustain what I have, that’s something that keeps me going.”

Welcome!

Generally speaking, the news tells us information based on what they think we should know. Oddly enough, we can put on the news and hear about the Kardashians for 2 hours, but hear about the explosion in New York City for 5 minutes. What is really important in this situation: Khloe’s new DWI or the safety of an entire city and possibly the whole country? The media is filtering important content to feed Americans irrelevant garbage that has no real impact on our lives. Why can’t we have what we want to see? Why must we be force fed Big Macs when we want fruits and vegetables?

We trust the news to bring us the facts about the world no matter how chaotic. Media censorship has gone way too far and is turning a once reliable outlet into a joke. As news consumers, we need to hear about the new terrorist group, we need to hear about the mass school shootings because these things matter for our safety. Unless the key to survival is what Kanye West and Kim Kardashian are fighting about, we are doomed for extinction if the media’s priorities don’t change.