The wow factor is commonplace in entertainment medias, from literature to films, television to news articles, and just about every other consumed form of information meant to attract a broad audience. The wow factor is the piece of interesting information, imagery, or data that triggers those dopamine receptors in the brain we all love so much. It is often created through over exaggeration, knit picking, or some other slightly dishonest practice such as click bait or in some events sometimes straight up fabrications and falsities. It can however in the less extreme cases be used to simply broaden the audience that a previous piece failed to capture, through the addition of more intrigue and the erasure of nuances. The wow factor is an excellent tool that can be used well, however can be abused to an equal extent.
The wow factor’s ability to draw in a viewer is unparalleled. Many people would never touch a news article in the span of their life if not for some interesting headline or image attached to it. It entirely changes the focus of an article, in a specific case, a Breaking Defense article on the Army’s newest night vision in comparison to the Army’s press release on the technology. Breaking Defense spices up the title, including a thumbnail for the article, showing off soldiers with this fancy new equipment, whereas the Army simply posts a PDF online, no thumbnail, no interesting title. That is because the goals of these two pieces are different. The Army is not producing this media for entertainment purposes, they wish to alert soldiers of new technology that their lives may depend on in the near future, and build their confidence in the reliability and functionality of the equipment, treating the night vision as a tool throughout their release. On the opposing side, Breaking Defense is not trying to get Soldiers to feel comfortable with changes in their future equipment, they want to show off how cool this new technology is, and rather than treating it with the respect the army does, its treated like some new toy for our nation’s warfighters.
The wow factor above is only the tip of the iceberg, it generally invades the article, changing subjects and focus throughout, and slowly manipulates the entertainment media until it is near unrecognizable from the informational source. With the aforementioned articles, again the Breaking Defense has their focus shifted entirely in terms of what the actual subject matter is. The Army focuses on what will be done, the combat capabilities and realistic usage of the equipment. The Army talks nearly exclusively about increases in lethality, marksmanship, safety, and reliability with the new gear. They speak on how effective a soldier is at long ranges at night, hitting targets reliably, and comparing that to the older night vision models which are currently in service. Breaking Defense on the other hand focuses more on what can be done, talking in specific about a marine laying on their back, shooting over their shoulder at night, and hitting targets at 400 meters, which is such an extremely useful ability for the average soldier that it’s not even a taught firing position.
https://breakingdefense.com/2019/09/army-issues-next-gen-targeting-goggles/
Original Press Release