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Originally Posted by soundman98
I don't really believe that they're actively working together so much as once one group stumbles on a foolproof method to improve their ratings and by extension financial earnings, it's only a matter of time before the other groups start to question why their methods aren't working as efficiently and adopt similar methods.
again with the youtube examples-- when i go incognito, many of the 'recommended channels' previews are turning to the caveman look of shock(can't think of the technical term for it) to garner interest in their channel. the effect spans a number of different categories on youtube, so they're obviously not all working together, but the effect is prevalent enough to make one wonder sometimes..
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This is universally true. We see this all the time. I remember going to Best Buy a decade ago and seeing an array of different laptops, and then I went a few years later and every laptop looked like a MacBook Pro with a silver, aluminum, unibody construction, black keys, backlit, bla bla bla. The landscape drastically changed. I think about cars and how Ford dropped sedans, and it wasn't because they couldn't make a profit off of sedans, but they could make a greater profit off of SUVs and CUVs. In biology, we call this convergent evolution when multiple different species converge on the same form factor or trait or cellular structure or whatever.
You hit the nail on the head. It isn't that there is some deep state controlling the media, but rather, there is a continual push for greater profits, and just like natural selection drives improvements in species, the drive for greater profits improves the media to be better at getting attention/profits, and we see a convergent evolution to a single form factor in media--extremism. It isn't that the media couldn't turn a profit delivering dry facts, but rather, they can make more profit by sensationalizing those facts or by spreading lies.