media frenzies and the tragedy of the commons
DESCRIPTION
Presentation held at the Rational Choice Theory in Communication Reserach seminar, Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, May 7, 2009.TRANSCRIPT
MEDIA FRENZIES &THE “TRAGEDY OF THE COMMONS”
Rational Choice eoryin Communication Research
Lugano, May 7, 2009Marco Bardus
USI- Institute of Communication and Health
Lugano, 7-05-2009 Rational Choice eory in Communication Research
Table of contents Intro: In the Era of Media Frenzies
Rational Choice Applied to Media e Social Costs of Media Frenzies
Discovering the Issue-Attention Cycle
e Tragedy of the Commons
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Towards Rational Choice in Health Communication…
Lugano, 7-05-2009 Rational Choice eory in Communication Research 3Images of the H1N1 Influenza Virus. h7p://www.flickr.com/photos/ajc1/3493605447/
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Media frenzy occurs…
“…when a critical mass of journalists leap to cover the same embarassing or scandalous subject and pursue it intensely, often excessively, and sometimes uncontrollably”
(Sutter, 2001)
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Swine flu trends
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Lugano, 7-05-2009 Rational Choice eory in Communication Research
Media flu trends
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Social media flu trends
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Lugano, 7-05-2009 Rational Choice eory in Communication Research
Good ol’media frenziness
Bird flu, pitbull attacks, locust alarms (Fengler & Russ-Mohl, 2005), the strange case of Mr. Kohl and the anonymous donations (Kepplinger, 2001), heartquakes, mad-cows… and environmental issues (Downs, 1972), over and over again.
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What’s the problem?
Prerequisites: uncertainty, news competition& information overload, time, lack of property rights (Sutter, 2001)
Consequences: lack or scarcity of control (verification) => low reporting standards => low quality journalism?
(Fengler&Russ-Mohl, 2005; 2008; Sutter, 2001)
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Lugano, 7-05-2009 Rational Choice eory in Communication Research
The “Issue-Attention Cycle”
Pre-problem stage
Alarmed discovery
+
Realization of the
Gradual delcine of
intense
Post-problem
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(Downs, 1972)
Lugano, 7-05-2009 Rational Choice eory in Communication Research
IAC=f (issues)
Issues characteristics• e majority does not suffer from the problem as
much as some numerical minority.• Sufferings are generated by social arrangements
that provide significant benefits to a majority or a powerful minority of population (Pareto’s law).
• e problem has no intrinsically exciting qualities.
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IAC in practice
• Most people are not reminded of the problem (because they do not suffer from it).
• Solving the problem requires social changes and great effort in behavior change. Significant attempts threaten important groups in society.
• Media attention soon starts to be boring for the majority of the public.
• Media realize that the attention is threatening someone and boring the others, hence they reduce coverage.
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Lugano, 7-05-2009 Rational Choice eory in Communication Research
DRAMATIC, EXCITING, LARGE ENOUGH TO COMPETE WITH COMPETING ENTERTAINING NEWS!
So the issue or the problem must be…
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“ARE JOURNALISTS LOCUSTS, TOO?”*
*(Fengler&Russ-Mohl, 2005)
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Rational Choice Media
News organizations pursue profit maximization=break-even point
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The social costs of media frenzies
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Rcrit Ropt Rfrenzy
Mar
gin
al b
enef
its/
cost
s
Number of reporters covering story
MPC MBMSC MEC
MaximizaIon of benefit
Turning point
MPC= Marginal Private Costs; MEC=Marginal External Costs; MB=Marginal benefits; MSC=Marginal social cost (MPC+MEC)
(source: Sutter, 2001)
Lugano, 7-05-2009 Rational Choice eory in Communication Research
MPC => Media circus
News organizations consider only MPC, doing only private interests, hence they send more reporters => Rfrenzy > Ropt
Reducing costs triggers excessive coverage and
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The “Tragedy of the Commons”
“e elite’s enviromental deteriorationis often the common man’s improved standard of living.”
(Dawns, 1972)
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A World’s dilemma
Is it possible to achieve“the greatest good for the greatest number”? (Bentham revised)
Lugano, 7-05-2009 Rational Choice eory in Communication Research
A Tragedy exemplifiedE.g. Pollution as a problem of the tragedy of the commons
According to Malthus, population grows geometrically. Hence, commons are justifiable only under conditions of low-population density.
How to solve it?a) Allocation of goods.b) Freedom to breed (Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?)c) Appeal to conscience and responsibility
e solution? = mutual coercion(Hardin, 1968)
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“Injustice is preferable to total ruin”(Hardin, 1968)
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Are there any other solutions?
Collaboration (no, it works only in small “fraternities”)Censorship vs. Open Access (=> false dilemma: tragedy
of the commons)Tradable permits (anonimity) => Depend on the choice
of a regulator
New problems: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
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ANY OTHER IDEAS?Time to discuss…
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Thank you for the attention!
Marco BardusInstitute of Communication and Health
Università della Svizzera italianavia Buffi, 13 – 6900 Lugano
Lugano, 7-05-2009 Rational Choice eory in Communication Research
References Downs, A. (1972). Up and down with ecology. e “issue-attention cycle”. Public Interest, 28(38).
Fengler, S., & Ruß-Mohl, S. (2005). Influenza aviaria, allarme cavallette e pitbulls come spettacoli mediali. Corriere Del Ticino, December 3, 2005.
Fengler, S., & Ruß-Mohl, S. (2005). Media frenzies over bird flu and locust alam. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, December 3, 2005.
Fengler, S., & Ruß-Mohl, S. (2008). Journalists and the information-attention markets: Towards an economic theory of journalism. Journalism, 9(6), 667-690.
Hardin, G. (1968). e tragedy of the commons. Science, 162, 1243-1248.
Kepplinger, H. M. (2001). Handle the scandal. Studies in Communication Sciences, 1, 117-136.
Sutter, D. (2001). e social cost of media frenzies. International Journal of Social Economics, 28(9), 742-751.
Documents
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References FluTracker. http://flutracker.rhizalabs.comGoogle. http://www.google.com
Google Blog Search. http://blogsearch.google.comGoogle News. http://news.google.comGoogle Trends. http://google.com/trendsSocial mention. http://socialmention.comTechnorati Blog Search. http://www.technorati.com
XCD. A Webcomic of Romance, Sarcasm, Math and Language. http://xkcd.com/574/
WHO- Influenza H1N1. http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/en/index.html
Web sources
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References '56 Dodge Lancer. http://www.flickr.com/photos/kahluacream/2114887238/
Do note [Closed] http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulwatson/5070827/
Images of the H1N1 Influenza Virus. http://www.flickr.com/photos/ajc1/3493605447/
World Population Growth. http://www.flickr.com/photos/laurenmanning/2979574719/
Pictures
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