Media Research Failure/Other Media: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[Media Research Failure]] examples from various sources.

 

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* [[Somewhere a Palaeontologist Is Crying]] each and every time that the mainstream media publishes anything remotely related to paleontology or biological evolution. There are paleo-geek blogs almost entirely built around this. Some of the most frequently published examples include such claims as:

** "The oldest relative of X has been discovered" (not only wrong because of what stated above, but the oldest relatives of any living being ever are the same original bacteria from which ''all'' life comes from. Your oldest relative is the same as your dog's and the baker's yeast you put on pizza doughs).

** "Found the missing link between X and Y!" (the concept of a "missing link" is completely unscientific and misleading, transitional fossils are the closest thing, with a quite different meaning).

** One that is almost as much a favourite of paleontologists publishing as it is of columnists reporting them; "The discovery of ''the'' oldest/largest dinosaur/whatever" (when there's clear evidence that it is not) Saying you found "'''the''' largest carnivore dinosaur" makes a much more interesting headline than "a considerably large carnivore dinosaur". This can be just the paleontologists wanting really bad to have had encountered the largest/oldest/coolest X and saying his or her latest find is just that. The paleontologist highlighting to the media the fact that the discovery is remarkably large/old/cool and the media just extrapolating that. And sometimes the media just making that part up completely.

 

** Toby Keith's song "American Ride" also refers to "the YouTube".

* Also, confusing "the Internet" and "the World Wide Web." is [http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/10/29/kleinrock.internet/index.html this CNN article from 2009]. The Internet is the much older, more versatile network; the Web is only the most visible use of the network. Email, for one thing, is an example of something on the Internet that is not (necessarily) part of the Web.

** Given the userbase's notorious [[Jerkass]] antics and extensive [[Me Too]]-ism, the "harassment" part '''''[[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgement|may]]''''' have a ''very'' tiny bit of truth to it.

*** The instigator of this claim, Dan Lirette, is a "open-air preacher" (Someone who yells religious statements in the parking lot of a Wallmart), who cheated on his wife with one of his followers, who he abandoned when she became pregnant. When the baby was born with no brain, the mother snapped and went insane; which is where Something Awful joined the story as someone noticed her blog. There was just as much pity as mockery, since she obviously wasn't well mentally, and when Lirette's involvement, which included such tactful statements as "The baby's not dead until I kick it in the head", was discovered; all the attention and much deserved mockery turned to him. Lowtax wasn't even involved, having moved to a much more hands-off role, until Lirette sent threatening emails to him.

* In 2007 there was a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNO6G4ApJQY legendary Fox 11 report] about the denizens of [[Image Boards|4chan and the other 'chans]], referring to them as "Anonymous", and portraying them as mafia-like domestic terrorists and evil hackers who gather on secret underground websites. (While in fact, nobody used "Anonymous" as a collective name at the time, they're not hackers, the site is publicly available, and although it's true that they can be very mean in their pranks, they're not nearly as much of a threat as the report implied.) It all caused not so many heads to be banged against walls as it caused [[Narm|arses to be laughed off]]. Among other things, it actually ''coined'' the now widely used name "Anonymous", and introduced instantaneous [[Memetic Mutation|memes]] such as "hackers on steroids", "internet hate machine" and dogs and closed curtains being Anonymous' only weakness.

** Ironically, in both this case and a similar Fox 11 report on [[Troll|trolls]] in general, the station is universally mistaken for [[Fox News Channel]] when, in fact, they have virtually nothing to do with one another, its just an affiliate of [[FOX]], the separate broadcast network. Another recent example of this occurred when someone posted a news clip claiming that "Fox News attacks bronies". However, the clip came from a St. Louis Fox affiliate, and not the Fox News Channel. The stations the Fox network owns and operates, are run by the head of Fox News, which makes some of the confusion (Fox owns stations in several major cities) understandable from a practical standpoint.

* Wednesday, March 24th, 2010. Associated Press Writer Nirmala George reports that "a tiny rock island" named New Moore Island in the Bay of Bengal has vanished due to rising sea levels. The facts, New Moore Island was a sandbar that first appeared sometime in 1974 near South Talpatti Island, never was more than two meters above sea level, had a maximum size at low tide equivalent to a mid sized Wal-Mart and none of the rest of the river estuary has "vanished beneath the waves". Sedimentary islands in river deltas arise and are destroyed constantly all over the world. Erosion giveth, erosion taketh away.

* In an [[Indianapolis]] high school, there was an underage drinking scandal, and the [http://www.indystar.com Indianapolis Star] misspelled multiple names. Which is extremely pathetic, because it was published right next to a list of graduating seniors submitted by the school.

* When the September 2009 G20 came to [[Pittsburgh]], a [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8271496.stm BBC reporter did an article], "Pittsburgh [[Incredibly Lame Pun|steeled]] to be host city", and included a photo of the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team playing at PNC park. The caption reads "The Pittsburgh Pirates are a symbol of the city's transformation." which ''sounds'' very nice. Unfortunately in reality ''[[Did Not Do the Research|the Pirates were near the end of their 17th consecutive losing season]]'' at the time! [[Sarcasm Mode|Gee, thanks for the compliment]].

* In Steve Birnbaum's guidebooks for the [[Disney Theme Parks]], the description for [[Muppet*Vision 3D]] states Waldo C. Graphic to be a new character created for the attraction. Waldo actually first appeared in ''[[The Jim Henson Hour]]'' about a year prior to Muppet*Vision 3-D's opening.

* The popular news meme of Al Gore claiming to have "invented the Internet" comes from [http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.asp misrepresenting] a statement he made in which he took credit for passing legislation that created the Internet.

* In 1992, the New York Times published [[wikipedia:Grunge speak|a list of "grunge slang,"]] all of which was entirely made up by Megan Jesper, the receptionist at Sub Pop Records who was getting sick and tired of media outlets calling for general information about "grunge".

* When legendary baseball manager Sparky Anderson passed away, Yahoo's headline read "The Hall of Famer was the only manager to win World Series titles in both leagues." Except he wasn't. Sparky was the ''first'', but Tony LaRussa did it also, managing the 1989 Oakland Athletics (American League) and the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals (National League) to championships.

* [http://www.focus.de/sport/mehrsport/motorsport-us-cart-serie-indy-500-franchitti-sieg-von-unfall-ueberschattet_aid_513849.html European media outlets] continue to refer to [[Indy Car]] under the name of a former rival sanctioning body, even more than 3 years after its [[Seasonal Rot|decline]] and demise.

* According to [[Fox News]], [http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/01/26/internet-run-ip-addresses-happens-anyones-guess/?test=latestnews Ipv6 isn't backwards compatible].

* A few years ago, a Finnish internet celebrity Pasi Viheraho contacted Finland's National Bureau of Investigation and questioned their internet censorship policies. When Viheraho asked why Google isn't censored, the representative of the bureau gave the infamous reply: "Google is not a website; it's a browser". The release of Google Chrome made this [[Hilarious in Hindsight]].

* The depiction of Anonymous in the media. Evil hacker group set out to [[Fox News|destroy all vans]], or international [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|internet freedom fighters willing to go to certain lengths]] to keep the internet free and open? Or just your average computer nerd, sick and tired of political bores trying to censor what they don't understand, using the aforementioned guise to [[Red Herring|distract them from the fact]] that DDOS-ing their site is all he knows how to do? Or maybe they are [[Wild Mass Guessing|internet superheroes from another dimension?]] [[Take a Third Option|Or all of the above?]] [[Sinkhole|Or none of the above?]] It's better not to dwell on it.

** To be fair, there was one bar in New Zealand that for a short time featured [[Squick|apple flavoured horse semen shots]] that did actually sell. Though it was mostly done as a marketing gimmick, and obviously it's not a widespread practice across that country and Australia as that EW article implies. Most New Zealanders were probably just as grossed out as everyone else who heard about it.

*** I certainly was.

* Another entry for the "memes misunderstood in the news" file was the "Pool's Closed" meme. It's kind of an obscure meme, but you can read up on it [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/pools-closed here]. Long story short, it was conceived as a protest in response to rumours that mods on an online game were being discriminatory. The meme image consists of a black man in a suit with an afro and the words "Pool's Closed" underneath him. Someone put the image up at a pool in the real world, presumably as a joke. And naturally, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAo7kRDrUmU&feature=player_embedded someone cried "Racism!"] Putting aside the fact that the meme is actually ''anti''-racist, it's really an ambiguous image that could mean any number of things. But according to at least one person, it somehow means no black kids are allowed in the pool.

* Before the release of David Lynch's film version of [[Dune]], Sting was featured on the cover of [[Rolling Stone]] in his Feyd costume against the backdrop of Arrakis. The headline? "Policeman on Mars."

* Similar to the entry on paleontology above, practically everything the media -- ''any'' media -- does that includes psychology will be an example of this trope. It's especially glaring in shows like ''[[Criminal Minds]]'', which, despite being ''all about'' psychology, will get much more wrong than it will right.

* [http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/25/opinion/stanley-eurovision/index.html?hpt=op_t1 This] CNN.com opinion piece by Timothy Stanley criticizing the [[Eurovision Song Contest]]. You can immediately tell [[This Is Gonna Suck]] when the author describes the show as "Europe's version of ''[[American Idol]]''". Not only that, he appears to be ''completely'' misinformed about the qualification process, saying that host nation Azerbaijan shouldn't be participating because it's not in the European Union. All that is required is that the country be a member of the European Broadcasting Union.

* Parodied by [https://www.google.com/search?q=omg+it%27s+r2d2+dalek+shirt&safe=off&rlz=1C1OKWM_enUS797US797&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=iJESEjLQEJO5wM%253A%252CJZTpn5oFEc1GwM%252C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kTAxPu9FYKKLJkebrW3NEYVPAGqTw&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwio84bVhezjAhVmc98KHeTXAv8Q9QEwAHoECAcQBA#imgrc=_&vet=1 a T-shirt design] which first appeared circa 2018, depicting a [[Doctor Who|dalek]] with the caption "OMG! It's [[Star Wars|R2-D2]]! I loved him in [[Star Trek]]!"