Elected officials have drunk the Kool-Aid of news media. For generations. This means an elected official’s on-camera responsiveness to media supersedes responsiveness to public and constituency. Elected officials increasingly have behaved this way for a couple of generations; thus, their behavior has evolved and mutated accordingly. They see and learn from the consequences of short bites on the news, good and bad. Then, they conform to such behavior and adopt the mannerisms of incomplete thought, scripted discussion, intimidated interaction, and bland performance. The result is bad government characterized by inertness and superficial debate.
After generations of such restricted behavior, “acting” in front of the media has become the norm for both the elected official and for the viewing public. The TV-watching population expects not a deliberative government, nor their elected representative or senator speaking cogently about an issue; rather, viewers expect a bunch of short, familiar, minimally thoughtful comments, few achievements, and in sum, pabulum. More than that, viewers get upset and change the channel. News outlets know this.
The news outlets script the news to attract viewers. The objective is NOT the news; rather, the objective is audience numbers. Stormy behavior by an elected official attracts viewers, whereas a figure outlining potential bills, laws and analytical repercussions repels viewers. News programming has ONE fundamental purpose – to sell commercials. Information is secondary.
In 1965, Bruce Tuckman, now Professor Emeritus in psychology at Ohio State Univ., developed a group development model meant to measure how groups meet, coalesce and work together, or not, to achieve objectives. The Tuckman model defines four stages of group development. Essentially, it is a teamwork theory:
Stages of group development
Forming: The group comes together and gets to know one other, finds common-ground and agreement, and starts to form as a group. 2.
- Storming: The group reveals its differences, chaotically vies for leadership, and goes through short trials of group processes.
- Norming: The group eventually reaches agreements and operates.
- Performing: The group practices its craft and becomes effective in meeting its objectives.
Tuckman added a 5th stage 10 years later:
5. Adjourning: The process of “unforming” the group, that is, letting go of the group structure and moving on.
In a government context, Tuckman’s group development formula mostly stops at stage 2 because the “storming” of stage two is the part of journalism that creates the most interest – “storming” is show-worthy and creates buzz that ultimately sells commercials.
In turn, elected officials have adopted “storming” as their best means of benefiting from interaction with the news media and exploiting their moments in front of the camera. Again in turn, viewers passively have become willing consumers of this behavior. Is this the status quo of government and the news that reports on government? Yikes!? What can change in this model? For now, the answers are unknown. Perhaps individuals should be elected if they demonstrate a disregard for the news media, and stand at a distance from their own political parties, who, it turns out, are experts at writing media “storming” pabulum.
What best services the news media’s sales of commercials? A strident-looking, not smart, always noisy elected public figure! Today, Abe Lincoln and Dwight Eisenhower would never make the evening news for being too smart, too thoughtful, and too even-tempered.