The business reason why 'News' is never 'News', but 'Propaganda'.

For any product or service to survive in a marketplace it must gather consumer patronage. No buyers means no survival. Now how does a brand become the choice of consumers? By turning itself into a proposition that finds value with them. Such value assessment made by consumers must turn into a trade where consumers part with their money for the brand.

The ‘business’ of news is similar to any other business. Don’t ever bother believing news is about ‘telling the truth’. It isn’t. Period.

Why?

‘Cos there’s pretty much no one out there in the ‘real world’ in search for the ‘truth’. What people aka citizens seek is their ‘version of the truth’. So they’ll end up listening to whoever piles them with their desired version. For news to ‘sell’ it has be dished out in a version sought by its target set of listeners. So for example, CNN dishes ‘news’ (read, propaganda) that satisfies its liberal followers. If CNN were to present the ‘objective truth’ (whatever that is), I’ll guarantee a loss of viewers. So day after day, what CNN dishes out is liberal propaganda that’s lapped lock stock and barrel by its liberal viewers. Ditto for Fox News, a channel on the other end of the spectrum. Ditto for India, where news channels even unleash prime time buffoonery guised as news. They do so ‘cos they perfectly know that’s what their viewers want! It’s what keeps their TRPs intact! The eyeballs from faithful followers is what keeps the fourth estate thriving, raking in the moolah that comes via advertising.

Tell you what, almost all news channels aka the fourth estate, faithfully dispense propaganda day after day. Now I am not faulting them for what they do. As a marketer I fully understand why they deal in the business of propaganda. I only wish they stop telling us they are acts aimed at supplying truth, and admit they peddle propaganda guised as news for their target audiences.

Of course, I know they won’t and guess what, that’s marketing too.