Taylor Swift and the end of the Hollywood writers strike – a tale of two media narratives
On Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023, they were abuzz about Taylor Swift’s appearance at the Kansas City Chiefs game on Sunday.
- On Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023, they were abuzz about Taylor Swift’s appearance at the Kansas City Chiefs game on Sunday.
- Swift and Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce had left Arrowhead Stadium together in Kelce’s convertible, confirming dating rumors.
- Across online media platforms, the WGA announcement on Sept. 24, 2023, ended up buried under headlines and posts about the celebrity duo.
Manufacturing consent online
- This particular occurrence is fascinating, however, because the AMPTP represents some of the media conglomerates that directly disseminate news.
- At the time of this writing, CNN.com has three headlines about the WGA strike and eight headlines about Swift at the Chiefs game.
- Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky’s 1988 book “Manufacturing Consent” outlines the problem of media ownership by conglomerates.
- Per Pew Research Center data, a majority of Americans get their news from online sources.
- The role of algorithms is a key focus of emergent research on manufacturing consent online.
Corporate media coverage of labor issues
- The muted coverage of the writers strike fits into a longer historical pattern of tension between labor movements and corporate media.
- When not covering labor issues in a negative light, corporate media has a track record of ignoring and minimizing these issues.
- Communications scholar Jon Bekken’s meta-analysis of media coverage discovered substantial drops in coverage of labor issues by major outlets like the Chicago Tribune, The New York Times and CBS throughout the 1990s and into the 21st century.