The Media and How it Uses its Power to Affect Consumer Behavior
The Media is a powerful entity that has the power to impact the way you trade, invest and save. In this article, I will turn our focus to Financial Media, and I will discuss how the financial media, like all other industries, influences your decisions and why you should be aware of it.
What is the Financial Media?
The financial media is a category of media that covers financial news and information. It includes TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, and the internet. The media uses both paid and non-paid advertising to market its products or services.
The Financial Media is a large source of income for many companies because it allows them to reach a large number of consumers at once. Companies can use this opportunity to advertise not only their products but also their brand name which will help them gain customer loyalty over time through increased brand awareness due to frequent exposure through advertisements within these outlets.
How the Financial Media uses the news to impact consumer behavior.
How the Financial Media uses it’s power to affect the everyday consumer’s behavior.
The media is often pressured by their advertisers, who want to be able to sell more ads. In order to create more interest and attention, they may sensationalize information that is not financially relevant to the average consumer to sell more advertising space and time. The financial media industry also relies heavily on generalizations and oversimplifications which can lead consumers astray when making important financial decisions. For example:
● A man hears about a savings account that pays 5% interest so he opens one with his bank – after all, 5% is better than most other available options (like CDs or bonds). However, what he didn’t realize was that this special account was a promotional offer that goes away after 6 months and charges high close-out fees and carries other hidden stipulations.
● A woman hears about how all her friends are retiring early because they have enough money saved up in their 401k accounts so she decides she’ll do the same thing- but again fails miserably because she forgot about what happens when you withdraw money from an IRA before age 59 1/2…
The main point is to make sure to research into the information and not take everything at face value.
What is their motivation?
The media wants you to buy their product, which is often packaged as an annual subscription or monthly fee. They also want you to click on ads. By promoting other businesses’ products and services, they’re able to make more money from selling ads on their own platform.
The media is frequently inclined to exaggerate information that has little financial application to the average person but is still interesting enough for them to share with their readers/viewers/listeners to create attention and drive up ad revenue for themselves and others (e.g., companies whose products or services were mentioned in the article).
The media will do whatever it takes—even going so far as creating fear in your mind—for you stay tuned into their content because this means that they can get paid over time by having loyal viewers who tune back in regularly; this creates long-term engagements which are much harder for competitors like blogs or podcasts because these platforms don’t have an established audience built up already so it becomes harder for them compete against established media outlets when trying to attract new users who may be looking at different ways of getting information about personal finance matters without feeling overwhelmed by too much content available online today (i.e., there’s always room for improvement).
Who wins?
The media wins because it makes money from ad revenue, which is paid for by other companies and often also these companies are in the financial industry. The companies also win because they can use their advertising dollars to generate an ROI for their business.
And who loses?
Unfortunately, the consumer loses. They lose because they are being bombarded with information that may not be useful to them, and they also lose because this information is often time-consuming and expensive. It’s not uncommon for the average person to spend hours in front of a computer or television screen each day just trying to get their daily dose of information from sources like Facebook and Twitter (or even just answering emails).
It’s possible that this overload of media could also be affecting our health as well; constant exposure to screens can lead to eye strain, headaches and other symptoms associated with what’s known as “Digital Eye Strain”. Nowadays it seems like everyone has been affected by this issue at some point or another—but there are ways around it!
We should all be aware that while certain outlets and personalities may seem unbiased, they are not as impartial and objective as you might think.
It’s important to note that while some financial outlets and personalities may seem unbiased, they are not as impartial and objective as you might think. Most of the media has a bias towards certain companies or products, and even if they don’t, they’re still often working with advertisers who do. This is why it’s so important to do your own research before making any major purchases, especially in the finance industry.
The best way to ensure that you’re getting unbiased information on a product or service is by reading reviews online—especially those written by independent writers who aren’t being paid by the company in question!
Conclusion
Remember, there are agendas at work here. They may be hard to see or understand, but they’re there. If you can recognize this fact, then you’ll have a much better chance at navigating through the information maze that surrounds us all today. There are plenty of great financial news sources out there, you just have to do a little research! Contact us if you have any questions about your portfolio or the events going on in the current economic environment. We are here to help!
Matt Ward, CFP®
Matt.Ward@newcenturyinvestments.com
817-238-6300
