Market Demand for This Documentary

I'm writing up various parts of my business plan, and thought that the "Market Demand" section resonated with the cultural aspects of academic bias that I briefly discussed in the previous post.

Below is a rough draft that hasn't been proofread yet, but I thought I would share what I have and welcome any feedback.

MARKET DEMAND

There is a strong demand for hard-hitting investigative reporting on complex issues, especially regarding the performance of the mainstream media leading up to the war in Iraq.

There is also an evolving paradigm shift for how our society views the role of mainstream journalism in our democracy. There is an increasing level of doubt as to whether the mainstream television news media can adequately fulfill their obligations of informing the electorate about the vital issues of the day.

Bill Plante, the White House correspondent for The CBS Evening News, told The Echo Chamber documentary in an interview:

"The need for an audience helps to drive the way we present the news. We can't take large chunks of time and just meander on about policy. We no longer have documentaries with any regularity. And most of what we do is done in a ‘short-attention-span’ context."

American popular culture is characterized by a cluttered media environment where many different economic and political interests are trying to capture the elusive "attention span" of American consumers and voters. This environment results in television news that is largely oversimplified and devoid of context.

As Plante says:

"Covering complex issues means that you either have to, for television, break them down into their simplest elements, and then try to illustrate those, preferably with something graphic. Or give yourself a great deal of time, something we don't have in commercial television."

This type of media logic drives the mass communication strategies of politicians who are trying to generate support for their policies. Politicians deliver messages wrapped in sophisticated public relation techniques that rely on deceptive manipulation and polarizing rhetoric.

David Sirota of the Center for American Progress observes:

"The more extreme your position is, the more of a short sound bite message you can make. I think that it creates an atmosphere of -- not of bi-partisanship or of compromise -- it creates one of polarization."

These types of mass communication techniques are effective at creating short-term political gains for politicians, but the long-term effect on society is that it discourages critical thinking. Both political parties reinforce an environment where partisan political propaganda can proliferate.

This dilemma is further exacerbated by a US media that is increasingly unwilling to produce hard-hitting, public affairs programming. Programming that truly serves the public interest is not very profitable to the corporate bottom line, and therefore it becomes more and more of a high-risk venture.

Plante sums up this dilemma by saying:

"You can feed broccoli to people who don't want to eat it, and they're not going to eat it. The broccoli should be out there for those who want to help themselves, but you can't force feed it."

The television news media have collectively given up on serving the American public with a healthy diet of news, and have resorted to providing a fast food diet of infotainment.

The media are also unwilling to move beyond the framing of the two-party political establishment where every issue is viewed through the perspective of electoral politics. The Echo Chamber documentary transcends the traditional partisan framing by exploring expert perspectives that are rarely heard within the mainstream media. It will provide insight into both sides of the media bias culture war as well as into the thinking of journalists who are reporting on the front lines.