Signal to noise

Laci Peterson – now there’s a name I’ll bet you never expected to see in these august pages. The River Reporter, after all, focuses on quality and in-depth coverage of important local stories, as well as useful and entertaining information about local and individual happenings, and Laci’s story wouldn’t quite fit into any of those categories. Laci, as you may recall, was the victim of a tragic murder in California in 2002. You might also recall how the announcement of the discovery of her decomposed body in April 2003 marked the sudden and abrupt end of the round-the-clock, bomb-by-bomb media coverage of the invasion of Iraq.

Do you remember? As if someone had thrown a switch, the media went immediately from concern about our troops and discussions of battle plans and the progress of the invasion to speculation about the possible motives for the murder, and then about the guilt or innocence of her husband Scott, who was arrested a few days later. It was just like that scene in the movies where the policeman goes to the crowd of onlookers at the murder scene and says, “Okay, folks, move along, nothing more to see here…”—except this time the cop was also saying, “Instead, folks, we’d like to direct your attention down the block here, where you can see another horrific crime unfolding for your entertainment—just walk this way, please…”

The recently announced (and eerily similar) case of a woman named Stacy Peterson reminded me of Laci’s case, and of the role that the corporate media play in shaping the ways we direct our attention. They provide us a steady diet whose major food groups include freakish crimes, minor outrages, celebrity scandals and reports of abductions of young blonde co-eds. (By the way, you can find some of Tom Tomorrow’s wonderful cartoons on this subject by searching on the phrase “glox news”—or just go to his archives at thismodernworld.com.)

The Internet and other modern communications technologies comprise a two-edged sword as far as promoting and enhancing democracy is concerned. They make it possible for interested citizens to locate information on an unprecedented scale about the activities of their governments, and make it easier to influence those activities through their input. At the same time, they also expose us to a deluge of information designed either to distract or deceive.

The technical phrase “signal-to-noise ratio” describes how much of the information that comes through a system is actually useful, as opposed to the amount of interference, static, or gobbledygook. When that ratio gets too low, when the noise overwhelms the signal, the channel becomes useless.

The capitalist free-market system is based (theoretically) on well-informed consumers and producers making rational economic choices—but it has spawned entire industries like advertising and public relations whose specific intent is to make sure that we do anything but make truly rational choices. Similarly, even a somewhat democratic system like ours depends (theoretically) on the citizenry keeping themselves well-informed—and for that to happen, it is essential that citizens have access to a wide variety of sources of reliable information.

So increased media consolidation, such as FCC Chairman Kevin Martin continues to press for, presents a clear threat to the functioning of democracy. The media reform organization Free Press has a good overview of the issue at www.freepress.net/issues/consolidation. Fortunately, the preventive measures that counter this threat are easy. Our support of independent local media, such as this newspaper and, of course, our local public radio station WJFF ((www.wjffradio.org)), helps to maintain that independence. We also can become more savvy media consumers, and let existing outlets know what we want:

More signal. Less noise.

- Skip Mendler