• BranBucket@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    1 year ago

    Coverage of politics became commodified and sensationalized in the name of ratings and advertising dollars. This form of competition has lead to the news becoming more of a form of entertainment than anything informative.

    At the same time, voter apathy drives politicians to search for new ways to create interest, promote themselves, and generate a following.

    This promotes more and more sensational behavior, which is further played up by the media, which raises the bar for the kind of things a representative from a flyover red state hardly anyone cares about has to do to maintain a presence on the national stage.

    Repeat that cycle a few times and now congress is looking at Hunter Biden’s nudes.

    I would suggest ‘Amusing Ourselves to Death’ by Neil Postman for further reading.