Continuing on the topic of tools; how can writings be useful?

Many books are tools. We can look at for what ends they are created. For example, dictionaries are often created to help people do reading and writing of other books. Reference books are so-called because you refer to them when trying to do something else (e.g. writing a letter, interpreting some written message).

Some types of books are a bit harder to figure out. What is the purpose of a novel? Many people write books to make money. Many "classics" are written for more elevated purposes I think—expressing enduring truths to audiences in accessible language. Probably similar things can be said of games. These just use new media (i.e. the platform you play them on; visuals/sound/etc) but may be created with the same purposes that many books in former times were most popular for. Growing up in the 90s, I saw stuff like magazines everywhere (still in supermarkets and some places you can see them)—what is the purpose of these?

Rituals of Modernity

I think I've heard the present era called a kind of new "golden age of television". One effect of the wide availability of so many different options of things to watch is that as a society (and I'm writing as a Californian) we often lack much common ground. Most of the co-workers in some office may watch some show together, another group of friends might only watch Japanese anime. Another household might only watch re-runs of old shows. And many may choose to not watch any TV shows or even own a TV/streaming device/etc.

Since 2016 at least (I'm sure all of these tactics/actions go back further, but with the Trump presidency is when many people started to look at these things more closely), the News has re-asserted itself as a kind of "common ground". Whether we're talking about public policy, required trainings, or even conversation openers, the News has re-asserted itself in a kind of "secular clergy" role. ¹

Whereas a religious community might find itself re-united proclaiming teachings passed down, people eagerly await for headlines to offer them new guidance. That's why it is called the news? Haha. Interesting etymology to maybe investigate later.

Much News offers a mediated view of the world. Rather than hearing/seeing things directly, we have reality interpreted to us through words, images, sounds, etc (most people can recognize how a news network they don't like, e.g. Fox news for people who identify as "left leaning" employs these tactics; a theatre!) And so we see contrasts of how stuff is framed—a peaceful protest or a riot; maybe even an insurrection? Feelings are attached to labels through repetition such that we can effectively feel what is being conveyed even if programming is just running in the background.

Back to tools

So what use do lots of "current events" media/writings/etc have? One might find it useful to keep their own records on stuff, for example through recording dates of births, marriages, deaths, and so on. Likewise there is book keeping required for doing business. Then, there are things like this blog (as well as YouTube videos and other things made by "everyday/normal" people) which kind of act as logs or points of discussion for relatively small groups of people—maybe you can consider them almost like "taking minutes for meetings". Looking back at this blog for instance I can see what sorts of things captured my attention enough to write about.

Just as individuals may do this, organizations can (and sometimes must) report on their activities as well, and very often they have people working in public relations (PR) to do this in a very deliberate way.

Governments, corporations, and the like are no exception. Particularly in a relatively democratic society where people are expected (or at least asked) to have views/opinions about stuff, it is the modus operandi for many parties to pester the public. Advertising!

Priming, trial balloons

Two other functions of lots of media these days is priming (getting people ready for some stimulus) and trial balloons (testing the public's response). You can see how "click bait" is used with the latter; for example, last year at this time, you would probably have a lot more negative reaction to "vaccine passports". Now, I imagine that the public at large is more ready to accept this (I haven't looked at any numbers).

An initial "trial balloon" may have shown a largely negative reaction. Emphasizing "public safety", sowing fear about "cybersecurity/fraud", etc may push people to move from initially viewing some kind of digital passport as scary/evil to something familiar (you already have a social security number, don't you?) and necessary for protecting the public (you wouldn't want just anyone to be able to drive a car, would you?).

Priming is getting a response ready; so for example, there is a lot of talk about "cyber attacks". I'm not going to be surprised if we hear about (probably Russia, North Korea, or Iran) how the US is under attack—digitally! Talk about cyber attacks is often associated with how much more interconnected our world is and how we might experience problems with infrastructure etc. So our leaders pushed us to make everything interconnected with computer systems (Internet of Things and more) and now... oh no! We're vulnerable to cyber attacks?!?!??!

Recognize the genre, don't just read the words

Texts are tools; so are laws and many other "programs" that run our world. Rather than taking the naïve approach that some people looking out to help us are just giving us cool/useful things to think about (this is kind of subjective; enterprising people will seek out and find relevant information) we can see how words, images, and sounds are used to get things done in our "high tech" society.