Some folks at times complaint about the state of the media

[nadinbrzezinski]

and what they go into.

Many Americans have forgotten the difference between hard and soft news. So how do you tell Hard, soft and fluff apart?

Roughly,will it affect your life potentially (or for real) in a significant way? This is hard news.

Examples of hard news include laws passed by Congress, especially significant ones. USCS decisions, not all, but a few of them, your local City Council discussing how to attract business.

All these are rarely covered by news networks anymore. They require research, and they require staff. They are resource intensive.

Soft news are mostly things that have everybody talking (see Sterling right now) but in reality affect very few people. Yup, it affects Sterling, it affects his team, the PR is a nightmare, and a few things.

Now as far as Sterling is concerned, the hard part of the news is not the tape, but housing policies and him betting sued repeatedly. That is a part that is not being emphasized, see resources.

Other examples of soft news are really the if it bleeds it leads, which dominates local news.

Fluff, that is your forever home stories. Ok, have a few of those in the can for a very slow news day. They happen from time to time.

Some people argue that breaking news fall into the category of soft, and I actually put them in their own category. They can be important if it is something like a major wild fire, flooding situation, the storms right now in the middle of the country. But the every day crash, unless you are doing a story on drunk driving DUI, texting, is really soft news and very cheap to produce.

Foreign news can be in all three categories, A potential military conflict is pretty hard, but a crash, while spectacular, in somebody else's rail system is pretty soft, and mostly filler.

People, imho, have to become far better consumers of media. Personally I do not think that will ever happen, all complaints to the contrary.

And that matters to politics, since how news is produced can influence the political process, as well as how we view the world.

[KurtNYC]

1. By "media" do you mean broadcast/cable TV (only)?

And are you saying that racism and on the job discrimination "affects very few people" ? and is therefore soft news ?!

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. I include in that magazines

and as far racism, notice what I wrote? The tape itself is soft, the lawsuits (which most media is ignoring) is the hard part of that story. He has gotten sued for discrimination, and I am betting he is not the only one.

But the tape is very easy to cover. Play it, have some talking heads, we are done, and we get eyes on screen. The lawsuits require a research department. As to job discrimination, that is hard news, but it is hardly covered in depth. Again, it is a matter of resources.

But Sterling's tape right now, it is not hard news. The background is.

And no, I include all types of media on this.

[KurtNYC]

5. The LA Times covered Sterling's lawsuit by Elgin Baylor yesterday

http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-elgin-baylor-donald-sterling-20140426,0,877251.story#axzz307XbzqMJ

And in 2010 Sterling was declared "the most racist sports owner in America":
http://www.sportsgrid.com/media/donald-sterling-racist-remarks/

Thankfully we have many sources for news and information now. TV is, as you cite, a lazy, crowd-pleasing, low budget news source. They favor visuals and audio because that is what TV does best. The internet lets anyone pursue all the information they want.

The internet and print are for people who want to think. TV news is about feeling -- feeling scared, feeling angry, etc. They even refer to certain stories as "feel good stories."

Another issue on this story is that Los Angeles TV news stations consider any story about race to be a powder keg but racism is real. Nothing soft or fuzzy about it.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Perhaps it is the I differ in how TMZ has covered it

and how LATimes has.

I hit my head on the wall often as well, becuase policy, race and labor stories are mostly ignored. They are hard news, that affects you in every way (where Sterling applies in all three), but they are rarely covered in depth.

When people post the sound clip I shake my head if that is all they consider with this story.

There are a few other layers with it, but none has talked about it (except apparently you and me), and that is the aspect of how the poor are used and abused.

The TV, to a point, has touched on the institutionalized racism, but just kind of..

[KurtNYC]

8. Race is a very tough discussion to have in the US

I like the way the guy in this video breaks it down but even as quickly as he goes through it, it is 3 minutes long which is about 2 minutes and 40 seconds longer than most TV newscasts would give him or this analysis I think:

I'm thankful that we have many more sources for news and information as I find most TV coverage a bit loud and shallow.

[randr]

3. If you want to see real news or have never seen real news

tune into Al Jazeera DishNet channel 215.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Or BBC, or Deutche Welle, or a slew of other non american news services

or for that matter CNN-I.

This is not accidental, I know.

[Brickbat]

7. These definitions are not those generally used in newsrooms.