• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, November 2, 2021

Define prime-time TV "anger" around TV or other media content. But also consider words like truth, entertainment, engagement, motivation, public trust and community service.

The issue came out in a recent report on Facebook. It is alleged the social-media’s algorithm gave five times more weightto people who responded to a post angrily — including those using an ‘angry’ emoji icon.

And you can guess why. People can be most engaged and focused by this -- which can yield higher numbers on the site, and thus draw more advertising.

One might believe Facebook’s initial intent was to only seek media content about people sharing family news -- nice vacation pictures or growing grandchildren -- and casual, entertaining posts. Guessing all the above is a more realistic picture of Facebook.

Tell me TV networks wouldn’t like to get even a slice of that kind of advertising response -- beyond their usual prestige, big brand-awareness efforts offered to major national marketers.

Facebook pulls in roughly $100 billion in annual advertising revenue. Do I have your attention now? The entire TV advertising marketplace is only $65 billion to $70 billion.

To be sure, there is also anger-related content on TV networks -- especially on news channels, because it drives up a different set of metrics -- viewership. (At the same time, some angry-related, non-factual opinionated screed on a news channel can cause marketers to make a dash for the door.)

Scripted entertainment? There can be anger there as well -- at least from onscreen performances. Guessing the “cool” medium of TV for viewers results in somewhat “cooler” heads from this content.

Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, recently suggested that Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, “address their core values.” That might seem like an open-ended answer. Value to shareholders, customers, or advertising clients, or overall for Facebook?

Facebook always believes it has been an agnostic player -- what is called a “platform” -- according to U.S. law. That means it is essentially not liable for content posted by others -- in other words, not a “publisher.” So should it have no view on anger-related content or happy-face posts?

TV networks can run not only angry-themed content, but angry-themed commercials as well -- such as political ads. At the same time, TV can take social-media content and put it on the TV screen as part of a live or other broadcast.

But that decision comes down to much more editing -- looking at the bigger picture. What other media companies need to do that now?