Shifting Baselines Blog

8/16 - Special Oceans Issue of U.S. News & World Report: "Keep False Hope Alive"

What does this cover say to you about the oceans?

Last week on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Lewis Black had a great segment in which he talked about what he thought should be America's
new slogan, "Keep False Hope Alive." Which is brilliant. And very
applicable to this week's special issue of U.S. News and World Report,
which is dedicated to the oceans ... kinda. Or maybe it's a little
more dedicated to trying to sell the maximum number of copies using the oceans as a hook. On the cover is a photo of a mean looking shark with the title, "Mysteries of the Oceans: How new discoveries under the seas are shaping our future."

What's so bad about this? To begin with, let's be honest and admit
that in today's minimal-reading society, the headline is 90% of what
gets communicated. The actual text of the article is like the fine
print on a contract which nobody reads. Yes, the people who actually
buy the magazine may read it, but they are few in number compared to
how many glance at the cover on the newsstand.

So let's look at it this way -- try to imagine doing a special issue
about a 28 year old Olympic athlete who is dying of throat cancer, and
putting a healthy photo of her on the cover with the title, "Going for
the Gold: Mysteries of an Olympic hero," with no mention of her
disease. Would that seem right?

And then someone contacts the magazine and says, "Don't you think that
her dying is a fairly major part of the story?" And they reply, "Well,
you and I know that, but we don't want to depress our readers -- death
doesn't sell copies -- people want to keep false hope alive. But hey,
look at the article itself, you'll see we have little inset boxes
titled 'Athletes in Peril' in which we tell tidbits about her
disease."

Which is the deal with the US News oceans special issue -- when you
read the articles you see they have a series of inset boxes titled,
"Oceans in Peril." Kind of like the fine print, so they can say that
technically they gave a nod to the fact that their feature subject is,
by the way, oh yeah, dying.

Who's to blame in this distorted communication? The writer? He or she
will tell you its the editor's fault. The editor? He or she will tell
you its the public's fault (they don't want bad news). The public?
They will tell you that if they knew this was THE major story about the
oceans today (that they are dying) they would expect it on the cover,
which is true. So it tracks back to one of two things -- either the
oceans aren't dying, or the fact that they are dying is not being
communicated to the general public effectively.

Regarding the former point, one of the "Oceans in Peril" boxes in the
US News article says, verbatim, "Two thirds of the world's coral reefs
are dying." That alone is enough reason to go with the general
statement that the oceans are dying (which is further supported by
declining world fisheries, emerging dead zones, etc.)

As for the latter point, yes, the idea of the oceans dying has not been
communicated effectively. How else can a movie like, "Finding Nemo,"
be set on a healthy, vibrant coral reef when U.S. News says that 2/3 of
them are dying? (and be packed with hundreds of healthy sea turtles --
see our Rotten Jellyfish Awards).

There's only one explanation, and Lewis Black hit it on the head last
week. "Keep False Hope Alive." There's lots of money to be made with
that as a motto. Which is okay, but as Michael Moore is so effectively
pointing out today (as he shames virtually all American journalists for
their failure to ask tough questions), don't look to the mass media for
leadership -- it ain't there.

Posted by Randy Olson at August 16, 2004 08:11 AM