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06916_Field_TCUM T481.txt
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1996-04-10
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993b
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16 lines
advertiser. Reader surveys have astonished even publishers
with the revelation that the roving eyes of newspaper readers
take equal satisfaction in ads and news copy. During the
Second War, the U.S.O. sent special issues of the principal
American magazines to the Armed Forces, with the ads
omitted. The men insisted on having the ads back again.
Naturally. The ads are by far the best part of any magazine or
newspaper. More pains and thought, more wit and art go into
the making of an ad than into any prose feature of press or
magazine. Ads are news . What is wrong with them is that they
are always good news. In order to balance off the effect and to
sell good news, it is necessary to have a lot of bad news.
Moreover, the newspaper is a hot medium. It has to have bad
news for the sake of intensity and reader participation. Real
news is bad news, as already noted, and as any newspaper
from the beginning of print can testify. Floods, fires, and other