Wednesday, February 6, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
The Bunkhouse
Chronicle
Craig Rullman
Columnist
The negative
space news
There is a concept in the
art world known as <nega-
tive space.= The basic idea
is that instead of trying to
draw the branches in a tree,
one draws the space between
the branches, and therefore,
ultimately, the whole tree
emerges.
With that in mind, last
Thursday night I put on my
old high school football hel-
met, tightened the chin-strap,
and sat down to watch an
hour of Sean Hannity. But
here9s the catch: I had no
interest in watching whatever
it was that Hannity was rav-
ing about. I wanted to sketch
the commercials, the nega-
tive space, to see what kind
of tree might finally emerge.
My working hypothesis
was that television shows
pander to particular persua-
sions. Almost no one alive
would argue with that. This
pandering, by the way, is
accomplished by way of big
data collection, and algo-
rithms whose sole purpose
is to capture our attention.
There is, in fact, on the other
side of our integrated screens
4 television, computer, and
phone 4 a supercomputer
aimed directly at each and
every one of us.
You can learn more about
that at Humanetech.com, and
I encourage you to do so.
Nevertheless, I thought
that by paying more attention
to what they are trying to sell
us in the hour that they have
our attention, we might learn
something interesting about
ourselves. In other words, if
the shows pander to who we
think we are, maybe the com-
mercials would tell us who
we actually are, and what
we actually want 4 because
that9s how they make their
money.
Here is what I learned:
Sean Hannity9s nightly show
is marketed to people with
droopy eyelids; people who
need stinky pipes unclogged
with lemon-scented freshen-
ers; people with bad breath;
people with diabetes; peo-
ple selling their cars on the
Internet; people selling their
life-insurance policies to sur-
vive retirement; newlyweds;
people who can9t sleep;
people who need more fiber
in their diets; beer drink-
ers; people with computer
viruses; people with memory
problems; people who need
blood thinners; people look-
ing for all-inclusive beach
resorts; people who need
eyeball vitamins; guests of
Hilton hotels; people need-
ing help with payroll and tax
preparation; NASCAR fans;
people looking for semi-
tropical retirement commu-
nities featuring pickleball,
windsurfing, and golf; and
most importantly (based on
the number of repeat sug-
gestions) people looking for
additional media platforms
where Fox News can be
found.
That9s the demographic
roundup of the Hannity
Show. From this sample it9s
difficult to recognize any
clear scientific patterns, but
one might be able to say that,
in general, the show is being
marketed to older people
in declining health who are
worried about their finances,
and who really want to get
away to the tropics.
On Friday night, armed
with a great pizza and hot
wings from Takodas, and
cozied-up for the occa-
sion in hipster flip-flops
and a Patagonia fleece, I sat
down with my legal pad to
watch the rival show over at
MSNBC.
MSNBC9s foil for this
hour of programming is
somebody called Rachel
Maddow. I don9t know much
about her, but I am aware that
she serves in the same role
for the lefty news that Sean
Hannity serves for the righty
news. Their job is, to be
clear, less about news than it
is about keeping their respec-
tive political bases aflame
4outraged, terrified, and
indignant 4 and I wanted to
see if I could figure out who
the supercomputers think is
watching her show, and how
the target audience may dif-
fer from Hannity9s.
This is what I learned:
Rachel Maddow9s show is
marketed to people buy-
ing home security cameras,
small cars, and insurance;
people looking for cheap
plane tickets; people learn-
ing Spanish; people who eat
designer soup; people who
need communication help;
people looking for all-inclu-
sive tropical resorts; guests
of Hilton hotels; and people
with the following medical
conditions: colds, bad breath,
hair loss, troublesome den-
tures, breast cancer, memory
problems, ulcerative colitis,
flat feet, diabetes and erectile
dysfunction.
Maddow9s show is also
targeting online shoppers;
fans of anime movies; and
people who need snappy
business cards. And finally,
it is marketed to people look-
ing for additional media plat-
forms where MSNBC can be
found.
That9s the Maddow
demographic. Again, no
indisputable scientific pat-
terns emerged, but it seems
safe to say that her show is
being marketed to a slightly
younger crowd of security
conscious online shoppers,
and people saddled with a
disturbing cross-section of
medical conditions 4 who
really want to get away to the
tropics.
So, what emerged from
this little experiment in the
negative spaces of the nightly
news?
Surprisingly, it wasn9t
what I thought it would be.
There were plenty of obvious
targeting differences, some
people were buying, and
some were selling, but what
really emerged was that the
target audiences, whatever
their political persuasions,
just don9t feel very good. To
put it bluntly, they are quite
sick.
But I was delighted to
see that even in the politi-
cally polarized audiences
there was at least some mar-
keting crossover. Because
that9s probably where we9ll
find a better starting point
for meaningful discussions.
And because in the end,
looking at the sketches, what
I had drawn from the nega-
tive space of these programs
wasn9t a tree full of gnarly
political branches. It was a
very clear drawing of very
sick people yearning des-
perately for some rest, and
relaxation, somewhere in the
all-inclusive tropics.
21
School
district
seeks budget
committee
member
The Board of Directors
of Sisters School District
will appoint one community
member to fill one interim
vacant budget committee
member position. The per-
son appointed will serve on
the committee for one budget
term.
The term will expire on
June 30.
To be eligible, a candi-
date must live in the school
district, not be an officer or
employee of the district, and
be a qualified voter in the
district. Candidate should
participate in school activi-
ties, be a positive problem-
solver and commit time to
review materials and attend
budget committee meetings.
Contact Mel Petterson, school
board secretary, via email
mel.petterson@sisters.k12.
or.us or pick up an applica-
tion at the district office. The
application deadline is 4:00
p.m. on Friday, February 22.
Applicants will be notified of
interview times. Budget meet-
ing dates are April 17 and
May 8. Budget hearing will
be June 4.
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is your online source for
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