“Sometimes, the media can’t cover a cough,” Marek Fuchs writes for MarketWatch. “That is perhaps never more apparent than when it comes to a pending product introduction — namely Apple’s iPhone 6, which apparently will be unveiled on September 9.”
“Truth is, we know how the media handles these things. It’s not as simple as saying that they are merely going to hype a new product to the heavens,” Fuchs writes. “That’s only part of what they do. What they actually do is more complex, but predictable. Call it the four stages of stock hype.”
1. The ‘hyperbole’ stage: During this stage, we get a guessing game of cartoonish proportions about the product’s new features, which no one knows for certain.
2. The ‘from murderously bad to O.K.’ stage: As the actual release date approaches, Apple will want to more finely calibrate expectations. At that point, information will leak.
3. The ‘back in bad’ stage: Once the product is introduced but before its actually released, the media are faced with a quandary: How do you write about an exciting product you haven’t handled for long? Easy: Just do it. That’s why coverage in the immediate aftermath of a release tends to be as overheated as the original coverage.
4. The ‘settle down’ stage: In may take a week or two after the actual product release, but eventually the media will return to what passes for its senses.
Read more in the full article here.