Vicious Cycles: Theses on a Philosophy of News

By Greg Jackson

"This is what I feared, that she would speak about the news... about how her father always said that the news exists so it can disappear, this is the point of news, whatever story, wherever it is happening." — Dean Baquet, reflecting on the election of Donald Trump

The nature of news is inherently ephemeral. This paradox is captured in the work of Marion Stokes, who, starting in 1979, spent over three decades recording television broadcasts around the clock. Her project serves as a haunting archive of the "now" that was designed to be forgotten.

The Evolution of "Newness"

What constitutes "the news"? In a literal sense, everything is new: a flower's bloom or a father's hug. However, there is a widening chasm between what is covered and what is actually consequential.

Daniel Boorstin observed a fundamental shift in human perception. In the past, a reader might look at a boring paper and conclude the world was dull. Today, the reader concludes the newspaper is dull. We have moved the burden of making existence interesting from the divine to the journalist.

The Rise of the pseudo-event

To satisfy the appetite for constant stimulation, we have replaced organic events with pseudo-events. These are occurrences staged specifically to be reported.

Common Pseudo-Events include:

• Political rallies and press conferences
• Official briefings and ribbon-cuttings
• Televised debates and shouting matches
• The "official" expression of outrage, remorse, or jingoism
• The curated celebrity profile or interview

When journalists analyze these events, they are engaging in a second-order pseudo-event. This is not news reporting; it is essentially theater criticism.

The Industrialization of Politics

By refashioning public life into a sequence of rituals, we have fundamentally altered the nature of governance. Politics has shifted from an industry of policy and legislation $\rightarrow$ an industry of emotion and entertainment.

If news focused solely on the minutiae of legislative proposals, the audience would vanish. Consequently, the role of the politician has evolved. Instead of governing, their primary job is to feed the "emotional-entertainment industry."

The Paradox of the Medium

Television news operates on a contradiction between its content and its format.

1. The Content: Claims "This is urgent and vital!"
2. The Format: Signals "This is just a segment in a time slot; stay tuned for more."

Unlike a doctor or a mechanic, the news does not connect the viewer to a solution. It identifies a problem but offers no remedy other than continued consumption.

The Math of Misspent Time

If we quantify the time spent consuming news versus the actual political agency it grants, the equation is staggering:

$\text{Utility} = \frac{\text{1 Vote every 2-4 Years}}{\text{Hundreds of Hours of News Consumption}} \approx 0$

Most citizens would likely vote with similar efficacy using a fraction of the information currently consumed.

The Vicious Cycle of Distress

The primary engine of TV news is engagement through distress. However, the news cannot provide a way to relieve this distress, because the only way to stop the anxiety is to stop watching—which is the one thing the industry cannot allow.

The Producer's Checklist:

• Create a sense of crisis
• Ensure the viewer feels distressed
• Prevent the viewer from finding a real-world solution
• Invite the viewer to "join us tomorrow"

Conclusion: The Supra-Ideology

As Neil Postman argued, entertainment is the overarching ideology of television. Regardless of the subject—even when reporting on tragedy or barbarism—the implicit premise is that the content exists for our amusement or emotional stimulation.

"We accept the newscasters’ invitation because we know that the 'news' is not to be taken seriously, that it is all in fun, so to say." — Neil Postman

We are trapped in a loop where the world is refashioned to be "interesting," and we watch the wreckage, waiting for the next segment.