Last night Julia and I paid $19.99 on Amazon Primes to watch Tom Hanks in the movie “News of the World” that NBC-owned Universal originally opened in theaters across the country. We enjoyed the movie, especially the performances of Mr. Everyman, Tom Hanks, and the newcomer, young Helena Zengel. Watching it triggered some thinking about the half-title of this blog, “media.”

In ” News of the World” Hanks deftly plays a character named Captain Jefferson Kidd, who in 1870 travels the Texas Hill Country reading stories from newspapers to a largely illiterate crowd for a contribution of 10 cents — i.e. a subscription revenue model.

The movie opens with a scene in which Captain Kidd reads a story about a coal mine disaster, which intrigues his audience. In a later session in another, a larger town, Kidd reads a story about the recently passed and controversial (in Texas) 13th Amendment abolishing slavery.

In reflecting on the movie I realized that whether intended or not, “News of the World” was a metaphor for the dilemma the media faces currently. Hanks’ Captain Jefferson Kidd is an 1870 media — a channel distributing news, a message (content ) to a receiver (an audience). Classic communication theory.

As an aggregator and distributor of content to an audience, Kidd must figure out a way to monetize (not an 1870 word) his efforts. The revenue model he chooses is a subscription model — pay upfront whether you listen to or, more importantly, whether you agree with the message or not. The model works well when he reads stories about disasters because, as 1980s research on TV news content showed, people like to hear about disasters somewhere else so they feel better (“Things may be bad here, but not as bad as there.”)

Captain Kidd learns the danger of the subscription model when he reads about the 13th Amendment. The last scene in the movie (spoiler alert) shows Kidd reading an entertaining story about a man who was buried alive, but comes back to life, and gives a raucous, rousing, revealing last line. He has learned that the news of the world has to be entertaining.

In 1870 the advertising revenue model had not been invented yet. But is the advertising model a better than subscriptions for monetizing news distribution? In the1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s I thought so. I thought that by depending on advertising that the media was able to keep free of government interference and go down the Walter Cronkite middle. Keep the news balanced, and most of all entertaining. Advertisers wanted to avoid controversial content. They wanted a bland content environment so their ads could stand out.

The pressure that Hanks’ Captain Kidd faced from subscribers to hear only stories that amused them has been carried forward in the media today, regardless whether the pressure comes from subscribers or advertisers. Probably the pressure to increase advertising revenue is greater because the rewards are higher. Advertising revenues scale higher because the ceiling can be higher.

In the 1960s through the 1980s, the primary goal of many media outlets was to serve their communities first, and make a profit second. Especially family owned newspapers and network-owned TV and radio stations tended to follow this community-first, “we” model.

It all changed when the FCC trashed the Fairness Doctrine and conservative talk-show hosts and Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News decided on a profit-first, individualist, “me” revenue model. Then this me-first, profit-first, give-me-what_I-want approach model was accelerated by social media — Facebook, Twitter and Google’s YouTube. Truth and decency be damned, full speed ahead with lies and misinformation, led by the criminal-in-chief, because that’s what made the most money.

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube finally did the decent thing and shut down Trump’s dangerous, sedition mongering, but not until a mob of crazies had stormed the Capitol. The riot at the Capitol was the fault of social media and, of course, the insane criminal in the White House.

I heard a report on WNYC that said a poll of Americans had revealed that a majority of those surveyed thought the riot at the Capitol was caused by, number-one social media and, number-two, by Trump.

I’ve spent my adult life selling advertising in the media, getting a master’s degree in media, teaching about the media and writing five editions of a textbook about selling advertising in the media. After hearing about the poll reported on WNYC, I thought of a joke my father used to tell.

We lived in Chicago in the early 1930s, and my father had a friend who was a reporter for the Chicago Tribune. Apparently, the reporter had written a story my father liked, and my father said to the reporter, “That was a great story, I’m sure your mother is very proud of you.” The reporter replied, “Never tell my mother I work for the Chicago Tribune! She’s very liberal and thinks I play piano in a whorehouse.”

I’ve never been ashamed before about devoting my life to the media and to selling advertising, but I’ve changed my mind. Don’t tell anyone I’m in the media, tell them I play piano in a whorehouse.