Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id OAA08724 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Tue, 14 Nov 2000 14:12:01 GMT Message-ID: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3101745B06@inchna.stir.ac.uk> From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: addendum to mysticism etc. Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2000 14:09:58 -0000 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Richard:
> <<<Memes spread for many reasons. We tend to pay attention to "crisis"
> memes. We believe ideas that fit easily into our existing mindset. We
> trust our authorities. We believe memes that get repeated several times,
> especially from multiple sources. "Truth" is not a strong selector for
> memes.>>>
>
>
> Vincent:
> <<That may be true for audiences, but what about the producers of media
> content? Why are they so persistent in misrepresenting risk to the
> public?>>
>
Tim:
<Feedback loop.
> The producer's job is to get and maintain market share (i.e.: audience).
> Whatever tends to get more audience will tend to be selected for by the
> producers. Whatever tends to push more buttons will tend to be selected
> for by the audience. The result: a vicous circle of evolutionary
> selection pressures that is only limited by the (ever changing) boundies
> of that niche.>
>
>
Quite possibly, although that's rarely what journalists would
acknowledge, instead appealling to higher principles of informing society
and window on the world etc. etc. I do get the feeling, stemming from
memetics, that perhaps there is an underlying process that is quite
simplistic in media production/consumption. I'm not sure that colleagues in
my discipline would necessarily find a reductive approach that appealing,
and more pragmatically, I'm not sure yet how to test this empirically- the
process that is, not the outcome, particularly since context is so important
in both production and consumption.
Vincent
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