NBC News posted a hyperlink to a breaking story on their official Twitter page with this description accompanying the link:
“Flight attendant said she knew something was wrong when she saw the girl with greasy blonde hair in aisle 10”
This innocuous story was received with immense backlash because of the content of the story, which the headline did nothing to address.
The tweet, now deleted, failed to mention the fact that this flight attendant saved a young girl from human trafficking by following a new protocol that helps airline employees spot and respond to suspicious activity while airborne.
The description, a girl with greasy blonde hair, failed to capture the poignancy of the incident, the heroism and quick thinking of the flight attendant, and the horrific aspect of the human trafficking epidemic.
Instead, NBC News reverted to what some dub as “click bait” to drive up page views on their website.
Kaki Clements, a theater major at the University of Alabama, responded to this incident with a biting remark directed toward NBC.
“I find it very disappointing, but very telling, that the current institution of media would run a story about ‘greasy blonde hair’ rather than one about saving someone from human trafficking,” said Clements.
The concept of selective perception, the psychological study of how one interprets the information they are receiving, comes heavily into play with determining how NBC’s audience processed the Twitter description attached to the story link.
Upon first glance, the idea of knowing something was wrong when greasy blonde hair was spotted on an airplane almost evokes a humorous response. Did the girl in question forget to take a shower before boarding the plane, or maybe she simply doesn’t care enough to clean herself?
The audience wants to know what could possibly be so wrong with this person that their greasy hair set off alarm bells.
However, after clicking and registering a view on the NBC site, the reader realizes their initial interpretation was most likely mislead by the tweet accompanying the link.
The tweet was carefully crafted to prey on the viewer’s tendency to employ selective perception and interpret the piece as something light hearted and prospectively even humorous, rather than a dark, potentially upsetting news story.
Journalists have an obligation to their public to engage in ethically responsible reporting.
In this specific case, ethical reporting was not accomplished due NBC attaching an ambiguous description to a story to potentially garner up more web traffic and watering down a hard-hitting story to avoid upsetting viewers.
Maxwell McCombs, contributor to the Oxford Academic report “The Agenda-Setting Function of Mass Media,” believes in holding the media responsible for what it perpetuates into society.
“In choosing and displaying news, editors and newsroom staff play an important part in shaping reality,” said McCombs. “Readers learn not only about a given issue, but also how much importance to attach to that issue from the information available in the story.”
By not disclosing the true nature of a story, NBC broke its journalistic obligation to remain ethical and honest with their audience.
NBC also played upon selective perception by luring the reader into clicking on a familiar and lighthearted soft-news headline rather than alluding to the serious subject matter within the story.
Ethics and Diversity in Media 