Have online media changed the perception of reality?

How much power does online media really have? In example why is pretty much every news about Messi negative, and every news about Cronaldo positive nowadays?

Lets consider this example,

Cronaldo has about 100M facebook fans and Messi about 50M, so I think it's fair to say Cronaldo's online fan base is about twice that of Messi's. Now, online news papers gets their income from advertising, more people visit their sites, more income they generate for themselves. And it's obvious that it's more beneficial to print positive news for the biggest fanbase and caress them, to get them to visit your site. But it doesn't end there, it actually has doubling effect, post negative news about the biggest rival, of the biggest fan base and you strengthen the relation to the biggest money cow there is.

I'm sure everyone has already noticed the manufactured daily positive news about Cronaldo, and daily negative news about Messi? Last year lol.com had in La Liga goal scoring related to penalties, this season to matches played when Cronaldo has 5 penalties more than everyone, but 1 game less than Messi. Last year lol.com was talking about Ballon d'Or how many goals were they involved, not this year as Cronaldo wasn't actually the most involved. I could literally go on my life posting examples of manufactured reality and bias, but I'm more interested about why?

Is it just purely about money?

Harmonica wrote:Is it just purely about money?

What else do you expect?

The answer is a definitive yes.
Nowadays people visit some trashy statistic websites and their judgement of players gets completely messed up through that.

Harmonica wrote:
Is it just purely about money?

Welcome to the real world.

In general, media give people what people wants.

In italy there is a daily newspaper (and respective site) called Gazzetta dello Sport. Maybe you know.
Some years ago was the "bible" of the football.
Now, after the first pages, there are calendars, nude women, trash news... and sometimes also sport articles who are more interested to how much Messi has thrown up who other.

Any publicity is good publicity. A negative controversial article is most likely going to draw more attention than a generic run of the mill positive one.

If I'm a fan of a footballer or a team, I don't just want to read positive articles. You just can't relate to that. I want to read about everything, including the shortcomings and defects.

 So all this just to rant about Ronaldo being more popular than Messi in the general public

Would be the same with or without online media.  The public likes what the public likes.  Movie star looks to go with great talent has always been, is, and will always be more popular than the looks of a hobbit with great talent.

This was true well before online media.

Ronaldo gets football fans and non-football fans. Messi will split the football fans with Ronaldo... but will get little to none of the non-football fans. Doesn't have the looks or charisma to attract people outside of those interested in football only.

CarloGOAL wrote:In general, media give people what people wants.

In italy there is a daily newspaper (and respective site) called Gazzetta dello Sport. Maybe you know.
Some years ago was the "bible" of the football.
Now, after the first pages, there are calendars, nude women, trash news... and sometimes also sport articles who are more interested to how much Messi has thrown up who other.

Good shout, every online media actually follows the same path, no matter who they were previously.

more like 'online media have changed reality' tbh.

Can't imagine 30 years ago there were hundreds of millions of people sitting in front of a screen pressing some buttons with letters on it, like I'm doing now.
That's a part of reality which wasn't there then.

Even your facebook stats are spun in order to promote an agenda
Messi has 75 million

It used to be about honest reporting, now it's about concentrating, inventing and manufacturing certain news and creating false images to advertising and milking more money.

I think the modern online culture is the guilty one here, demanding such practice from every site that wants to succeed. If you print against the biggest cash cow you risk alienating the biggest cash cow, and ultimately losing to the sites, which advertise it, even if it's against the actual reality.

Anyone familiar with the history of the news media knows that 'honest reporting' never was the main thing
And I would claim that there exists more honest reporting in the internet today than existed at any time before in the history of mankind.
That it's not featuring much on the frontpage of BILD, AS, Spiegel, the Daily Mail or the *bleep* New York Times is really nothing new

Wasn't it only like a year ago that Messi was the media darling that could do no wrong and Ronaldo was a controversial figure who everyone hated on?

I wonder if this was brought up then.

Honest reporting ? May be long time back quality of news analysis might have been good because internet was a growing medium. There might have been new start up giving quality rational analysis on games .

Overcourse of time the internet has been tamed by elites with vast majority ot population visiting only few sites owned by mega corporates . As corporation their main objective is to dumb down population ; provide basic info and increase revenue . The situation is very serious if your are analysing democracy and media . The entire US media I heared somewhere is controlled by 5 corporations .

So atlast harmonica woke up from deep sleep .

Media is far more "honest" today because you can't hide anything... everything is out there for the public to see and digest. In the past, the media could manipulate public opinion by conveniently ignoring the reporting of facts that didn't fit their agenda.

i know what you're trying to do here... but you're failing miserably.

sree999 wrote:Honest reporting ? May be long time back quality of news analysis might have been good because internet was a growing medium. There might have been new start up giving quality rational analysis on games .

Overcourse of time the internet has been tamed by elites with vast majority ot population visiting only few sites owned by mega corporates . As corporation their main objective is to dumb down population ; provide basic info and increase revenue . The situation is very serious if your are analysing democracy and media . The entire  US media I heared somewhere is controlled by 5 corporations .

So atlast harmonica woke up from deep sleep .

That's false.  It used to be true about entertainment content like books, TV, movies and music.  But with free distribution platforms out there (like facebook), the content creators themselves can distribute their own content without the need to use the old traditional means.  

Everything has become free and decentralized.  Heck, i bet you that in a couple years, all you will buy is internet connectivity...  cable TV programmers, satellite TV programmers, etc will all become obsolete.  It's started already.  HBO is starting its own streaming service that people can tap in directly with only the internet. No need to get HBO via a cable or satellite service.

Harmonica wrote:It used to be about honest reporting

sportsczy wrote:Media is far more "honest" today because you can't hide anything...  everything is out there for the public to see and digest.

The only thing that has changed was the fact that people have more sources of news available to them. The willingness of people to "see and digest" (if they even "digest it") these multiple sources has not changed which means it's still extremely easy to hide things from people. In fact it's even easier to fooll people because people

As for people claiming 5 corporations "control" US media... try a smaller number lol.

Just to give you guys an impression to how far reaching Murdochs influence is in the English speaking world:

Dow Jones
HarperCollins
The Sun
The Times
The Sunday Times
New York Post
Wall Street Journal
The Daily Telegraph (AU)
The Sunday Telegraph (AU)
Herald Sun
Sunday Herald Sun
mX (AU)
BSkyB
StarTV
National Geographic
BabyTV


News has never been reliable.

Also, HBO Go is still only available to actual HBO subs.

El Cujo wrote:Wasn't it only like a year ago that Messi was the media darling that could do no wrong and Ronaldo was a controversial figure who everyone hated on?

I wonder if this was brought up then.

It wasn't.

Then again I wonder what Harmonica would do if it was Ronaldo who was under investigation for tax fraud

The truth is that because of the media's love for the narrative of two rivals who are so different in terms of profile, Ronaldo was made to look like the antagonist by nerd journalists while Messi was painted as a choir boy.

Nowadays we've come full circle, people have gotten wise and see Ronaldo for what he is, a consummate professional, an elite talent and a great teammate. The fact that Madrid started winning big trophies definitely didn't hurt either.

However because Messi and Ronaldo will always occupy two sides to the same coin Messi received the inevitable backlash of things like tax evasion and winning undeserved awards like the WC Goldan Ball. By some weird circumstance CR became counterculture and Messi came to represent the establishment. Also the fact that Messi has suffered some huge losses in the recent pass has hurt his image a bit.

As for the online stuff affecting opinion, I agree, nowadays any guy with good excel skills and a few stat manipulation can whatever picture he wants to suit his agenda. However these things fade away because no one likes numbers except nerds what will remain is the legacy and for Ronaldo and Messi that legacy is pretty much secured, thanks to their elite talents first and the bond of the rivalry second.

sportsczy wrote:

sree999 wrote:Honest reporting ? May be long time back quality of news analysis might have been good because internet was a growing medium. There might have been new start up giving quality rational analysis on games .

Overcourse of time the internet has been tamed by elites with vast majority ot population visiting only few sites owned by mega corporates . As corporation their main objective is to dumb down population ; provide basic info and increase revenue . The situation is very serious if your are analysing democracy and media . The entire  US media I heared somewhere is controlled by 5 corporations .

So atlast harmonica woke up from deep sleep .

That's false.  It used to be true about entertainment content like books, TV, movies and music.  But with free distribution platforms out there (like facebook), the content creators themselves can distribute their own content without the need to use the old traditional means.  

Everything has become free and decentralized.  Heck, i bet you that in a couple years, all you will buy is internet connectivity...  cable TV programmers, satellite TV programmers, etc will all become obsolete.  It's started already.  HBO is starting its own streaming service that people can tap in directly with only the internet.  No need to get HBO via a cable or satellite service.

I disagree

I am not saying this as a Messi vs Ronaldo debate . But more in general esp function of media within a democracy . Especially use of propoganda eg American involvement in Europen wars . By driving a war hesitant population into war fanatics  . The massive propganda against Syria . Like that

Yes internet is a  bastain of open communication
It has been a source of many revolutions but the real question is who will control the framing of internet information in future ? That's where power elite and corporate-govt nexus has there eyes on .They want to control spectrum of open public debate and make common people only  spectators in a democracy. Drive down populism (universal healthcare ) ; make people hate politics ; make laws that hurt common people by signing trade agreements that destroy jobs ; destroy unions

Free and decentralisation   hmm real question is who owns the media ? HBO is owned by one of those five us companies . Unless and untill there is a viable WORKING CLASS MEDIA owned and run by them ; they will be just be victims of propoganda and Machiavelli politico-elite nexus .

Yes this drifted away from football. But it had to viewed from another angle .

So according to sree CR is part of the Illuminati

Well here in LA, where there's a strong Hispanic American population, it's still Messi as the good guy and Ronnie as the bad guy. Maybe in Brazil it's Ronaldo who's the good guy.

Winners or locals are always protagonized. Losers or foreigners are antagonized. That's just the way it goes. Media just focuses on selling, always has and always will, unfortunately.

No ; i didn't say that . He deserves the award if he gets it . Are you happy now

As a Barca and Messi fan I can say Ronaldo is better.

Zealous wrote:So according to sree CR is part of the Illuminati

Is it also fair to say that this thread was created because the popular opinion on Cr has vastly improved and many more people see him as a better player than messi and a runaway CL winner? Because i cant for my life remember about you complaining of sites that would pump up messis stats in peoples face when he was on top?

Generally you are right online sites that throw garbage stats at people influence the masses a lot. Its just funny because you were a full fledge member of that crowd not long ago

As people say glass is always half full or half empty. Just depends where you stand

Oops