Perspective Creates Reality: How the Media is Prolonging the Economic Mess

We’re fooling ourselves if we don’t think that the media profoundly shapes our reality.  We are what we know and if all we hear and see is that the economy is tanking, that our politicians are useless and that things are getting worse on a daily basis, then in time those thoughts and feelings define us.   I’m not advocating ignoring the facts and viewing the world through rose-colored glasses, but I am saying that collectively we act and react based on what we hear and see.  Watching a continual stream of segments on how the economy is tanking and reading article after article on how there are no jobs and why credit has dried up is going to impact the choices we make and that in turn impacts the economy.

Fearing the worst, individuals are going to spend less, employers are going to take a wait and see attitude towards hiring, and banks are going to tighten their lending practices.  That is human nature.  That is how we work.  We act and react based on what we know and corporations and governments act and react the same as families and individuals.  I know we like to think that CEOs and politicians are above such human frailties and act in sane rational ways, but they’re simply people and they react as we all do.

Consider the stock market.  We basically bet our economy on this system, yet its ebbs and flows can be measured on a daily basis by what news the media is reporting and how it is reporting it.  And I’m not talking about fact-based reporting, but on speculative stories.  If CNN, the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times run a story about something that might happen, or about an event that could have a potentially negative effect, the market generally reacts in a big way the following day, not based on facts or figures but based on emotional reactions. Surely that is an oversimplification of how the market works, but it is a much bigger factor than experts generally give credence to.

It’s as though we want to pretend that in the worlds of economics and politics, human beings suddenly act and react in non human ways.  We want to believe we’re rational grown ups and that the economy is based on facts and numbers and therefore is not subject to fears and fantasies.   That is simply wrong.  Continual doses of doom and gloom causes (guess what?) you got it more doom and gloom.  We are creating a self fulfilling prophecy, but we refuse to see it.  We want to pretend that grown ups don’t act in such emotional irrational ways.  But it’s been shown time and again that they do.

So, what if the focus shifted?  What else would shift?  My bet is quite a bit.  The media’s not going to change; they are convinced that if it bleeds it leads and that’s where they’re going to stay. But what if collectively we changed?

This is where personal public relations, particularly media relations, along with social media and blogging can make a huge difference.  It’s true that PR is used to drive business, but it can also help change attitudes and policies.  It can impact the stories that are covered and can help change the direction that the media takes.  If a story you pitch is covered, another possibly downbeat story gets bumped.  If a momentum starts, then a shift begins.  It’s cumulative, it takes time, but collectively it helps us take some control back.   What if we were to start pitching and blogging and posting good news stories?  What if the media no longer defined our world for us?  Who knows how the world would change.  I say, let’s give it a shot.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011