"Air America" Out of Air

By Brigitte L. Nacos 

Rumors became reality, when the progressive radio network “Air America” filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The news was hardly surprising given the rather modest audience (reportedly between two and four million daily) in comparison to the regular listening audiences of conservative talk show stars, such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. But the reason for Air America hosts’ failure to build comparable followings is not, as Limbaugh suggested, that the liberal radio network was simply created to win elections (Limbaugh must have forgotten the central role that he and his ideological bedfellows on the air played for example in the 1994 off-year election that gave Republicans control of the House of Representatives). Instead, part of the answer might well be found in the profound differences between conservatives and liberals, when it comes to propagate their respective ideological views and objectives in mass-mediated sound bites. Democrats seem to ignore the sound bite gap.

Given today’s information glut and highly competitive media environment, the surest, if not the only way to get attention and overshadow opposing voices are provocative messages in the shortest possible form. One-liners and sound bites are the predominant messages in the mass-mediated political discourse of our time. And in this situation, conservatives have inherent advantages because of their rather clear-cut positionson what is good or bad, right or wrong. There is no need to consider in-between possibilities, if there is only one right side, one good position on a given issue. Your message is categorical, to the point, and short: Tax and spend. Cut and run. These slogans are ideal in the mass-mediated sound bite environment. Ideal for conservative talking and screaming heads.

In sharp contrast, liberal or progressive views and objectives are far more complex and far less clear-cut than those of the conservative competition. How, for example, can a liberal talk show host deal with conservatives’ perennial demand for tax cuts in a sentence or two? To truly explain the problematic tax system and how to fix it takes more than a sound bite or two. The same is true for other policy areas. Take health care. To counter the “socialized medicine” slogan of conservatives, liberals need far more than a two-word sound bite.

Still, these differences alone do not explain conservatives’ dominance in talk radio nor does the conservatives' argument that there is no demand for liberal talk radio because the mainstream media have liberal biases. Just as Democrats cannot succeed by embracing the policy positions of their Republican counterparts or by imitating their rivals’ strategies and tactics, liberal talk radio cannot succeed by providing progressive versions of conservative talk shows. Since the target audiences are different, progressive radio needs to come up with different types of hosts and different show formats. Otherwise, Air America will lose all its air and similar efforts will not succeed.   

Comments

[Tiffany Jeltema]

I found it very interesting what you said about media presenting messages in the shortest form possible. With our busy lifestyles, we don’t have (or make) time to learn the full story behind every issue. We want short, to the point information blurbs that we can easily identify with. And if something doesn’t grab our attention, it doesn’t matter because topics rapidly change and other stories are printed and running across the screen.
It’s almost like we are being conditioned to not think much about the news – what is happening in the world around us that IS supposed to matter. If we don’t put much effort into our thoughts, no wonder we don’t DO anything about it!