TV/Paper/Radio news

[JoeQuaker]

NW's Connie Chung post got me thinking. Anyone else notice how pathetic news outlets are getting lately? I mean of course mainstream media has sucked for years but lately it's just sad some of the crap these companies pass off as news and the lies they pass off as true. Especially the days when every outlet seems to be saying the exact same thing about a story, going as far as to use the same adjectives. Internet-based outlets seem to be killing it at a rapid pace. It's obvious a high-up entity is writing their scripts for what and what not to report on.

I had been getting calls lately wanting me to take a survey. As soon as they mispronnounce my last name I just hang up on them usually. Well the last time they called, I was curious as to what they were calling about. The question was "What TV news, radio news, and paper news, and radio news do you use?" My answer was none of them. They asked a stupid follow-up question to which I replied "I really don't buy any of that crap, I get my info from the Internet" and they said "OK thank you sir and have a great evening". It got me thinking... I wonder who's paying for this survey? Little did I know the answer would fall right into my hands later!

At work, I was filling in for a route driver who was sick. One of the locations I got to is a "call center". This roach-infested building is filled with sassy black women and disgusting long-haired sloppy Pagans operating phones by old green and black-screened unix terminals with 2 nerds manning the controls and barking orders. They are contracted by companies like AOL to handle nothing but account cancellations. They also do surveys. I'm looking around the bulliten board area where extra hours are posted. Right there I see "FOX 8 survey" and "WXII 12 survey". 

Either one of 2 things is happening. Either 1, they have so much money they can piss some away on research projects like this for even more readers/viewers or #2, they are desperately trying get and keep their constantly dwindling audiance. It's my feeling that #2 is the most probable...

[esteban666]

I can provide some more info on the survey stuff.

Many years ago (1998-99) my wife was chosen by
http://my.kninc.net/Login.aspx

To take surveys. The only incentive they were offering was a free WebTV + keyboard + free service. Everything was free, mind you, as long as you took the surveys in a timely fashion. Otherwise, they'd drop you and ask you to return the equipment. Supposedly, after three years, you'd be able to keep everything.

Anyway, we had no need for silly WebTV (we had a proper computer and dial-up), but being the dorks that we were, we thought that it would be neat to see how WebTV enhanced the television.

Well, digital cable was not widespread at the time, and even when it was more readily available, you had to pay extra for it. So, we actually had a blast with WebTV since it provided on-screen info and schedules. It worked very well, actually.

Soon digital cable was the norm and there was no need for WebTV.

But we were still taking those stupid surveys. At least 2 / week. Lots of organizations used Knowledge Networks services, and sometimes you were told who commissioned the survey you were taking.

99% of the time it was typical market research garbage.
Sometimes, especially around elections, big news stations would use surveys to gauge the sentiment towards candidates.
Sometimes the surveys seemed to be for public policy. At other times, it seemed like it might be for academic research (this was very rare, though).

What I learned from this experience was that surveying was big busisness and that many organizations (from news organizations, academic researchers, public policy advocates, market researchers from corporations) must have paid a lot of money for Knowledge Network's services.

In order to obtain a representative sample for a survey, you have to either use the phone or the internet. Since WebTv's were distributed for free, it ensured that folks who might otherwise have been excluded from the surveys were included. It reminded us of the Nielson "boxes" that folks got. A kid I knew in high school was in the Nielson survey.

Anyway, long story short, I hated 99.999% of the surveys I took and purposely answered to keep things as short as possible. "Do you enjoy any of the following beverages?" No. "Bottled water, then?" No.

[JoeQuaker]

That's an interesting story. It's amazing to me how much money these people pour into these studies. I guess polititians and CEOs are that out of touch with the reality of the American public... either that or they wish to use the data to mold the American publics perception of that reality.