The News, The Media, The Economy?

sellin71 · 03-02-2008, 01:23 AM

Let's not get this political, just rational. Do you think that our media can bring on a recession by constantly talking about the slightest possibility of one?

I was listening to Anne Murray's song today, "A Little Good News" and it made me think. All we hear is bad, I know that there is good out there. What if we did hear good news everyday instead of bad, even if it was manufactured ( it doesn't have to be), but what if. People's perception would be so different and positive.

They wouldn't be standing around the water cooler saying, the news said that gas could reach $4.00 a gallon by summer, or the news said that my adjustable mortgage is going to raise a couple of points so that I will lose my house.

The next guy says really? (He is living in a bubble and only believes what the uber co-worker spews, whom only believes what the talking heads are spewing on television.....sometimes I despise modern technology.)

Are we just a bunch of lemmings? Why do we as a society buy everything that a bunch of pretty people on television tells us to believe?

When will we think for ourselves?

Endless Wake · 03-02-2008, 01:31 AM

I like to use the media quotes to back up what I've been saying was going to happen for years.

sellin71 · 03-02-2008, 01:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Endless Wake

I like to use the media quotes to back up what I've been saying was going to happen for years.

Does that make them prophets or self-fulfilling prophets?

Ink · 03-02-2008, 08:33 AM

I think the majority of the people forgot how to think for their selves

Endless Wake · 03-02-2008, 09:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sellin71

Does that make them prophets or self-fulfilling prophets?

Your right that the media could hasten the situation but the problem exists with or without their help.

tedmic · 03-02-2008, 10:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by inkfire00

I think the majority of the people forgot how to think for their selves

This is so true. The news mostly reports bad news. It's easy to have a negative attitude with a daily feeding of this. Do I really need to know that 25 people died in some small village in China due to a flood or two people died from a tornado in Kansas? Local news loves to show us pictures of fires and car accidents because it's visually interesting. But if the papers JUST reported the good news. we'd be living in the 1950's (bad thing?). Balance is in order here.

bat_collector · 03-02-2008, 11:09 AM

inflation doesn't need the news to happen to occur.

but hearing contstantly how bad things are doesn't help

sellin71 · 03-02-2008, 12:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bat_collector

inflation doesn't need the news to happen to occur.

but hearing contstantly how bad things are doesn't help

I heard a man say yesterday, "The news said we could be in store for a depression not just a recession."

He then proceeded to tell me what he was doing to prepare for this event that MSNBC said could happen.

His battle plan was to not eat out anymore and he even said that his internet and cable wasn't really that important. Knee jerk reactions.

Endless Wake · 03-02-2008, 12:41 PM

As long as another speculative market comes around like real estate did after the internet, the economy will recover. Unfortunately the only likely candidates are infrastructure and alternative fuels, neither of which are as attractive as the previous two markets.

ANGRYCOMICMAN · 03-02-2008, 08:48 PM

The so called media can shape everything we see and hear.
Some of you are too young to remember this but back in the late 70's or early 80's.
Johnny Carson said very seriously on his show that there was a toilet paper shortage.
The next day people were buying toilet paper like crazy, until the shelves were bare. He had to say the next night that it was a joke. And this wasn't even a news show. Some of the lazy news people even ran with the story as if it were real. Never bothering to check out the story.
In this age of instant access/gratification to all forms of media, it's even easier to fool the masses. Since most people I meet on a day to day basis, are genuinely sheep and have no attention span whatsoever. They believe almost everything that is fed to them, by the so called media.
Most of them will perish when the depression hits.