24 Hour News
Posted by bcooney on October 31, 2006
The media. Yes like globalization the media is everywhere, all the time. Turn on a TV anywhere in the world there is a good chance you can get access to CNN or the BBC. Even in the world of sports, ESPN has 24 hour sports news and even channels dedicated only to NFL football. The amount of information accessible in this modern era is nothing short of overwhelming, but why then does watching news often yield us little or no benefit.
My father who’s a military came home from work one evening and the family came together for dinner. Our dinner table is normally, well lets say vocally active. When my mother asked my father about work he went on about a coup in an African country, honestly I don’t remember which country. He continued on for several minutes about why the coup was taking place and the various techniques and US responses and feelings about it. After several minutes I finally asked. WHAT. He didn’t understand and obviously I didn’t either. I said “dad I was watching the news for 2 hours today,” as I often do before and after school and during and in between activities on a lazy, “no one said anything about a coup!” Well sure enough it happened. While I don’t recall anything said on the news instead of covering an African revolution, mostly because it wasn’t covered. I’m sure there were plenty of human interest stories about a man struck by lighting, a Midwestern storm, and a traffic jam, all stuffed between normal days talk of the economy, government, and events.
I turned on the news to hear a 10 minute story about Madonna adopting a baby but on an average day I will miss crucial stories about our world. The information is out there but so is the service to deliver to me. When its worth my time I seek out the answers and look, but when I don’t even know something happened or don’t have an opportunity to do anything more than listen to the headlines. I have a demand for this type of information and others do too. When will the 24 hour news channels give us more news. While I haven’t turned away I am dissatisfied.
sehauser said
Hart recently had a blog posting on this subject matter too. It really amazes me what the media considers important and valuable information for the masses to know. Although I don’t think its completely the medias fault, what always draws in the most viewers? Sex scandals, celebrities being idiots, and other non-important issues. We have whole “news” broadcasts dedicated to this stuff like Access Hollywood and other gossip shows that draw in viewers but have little to no educational value. I think around junior year I decided not to watch the local evening news anymore because I realized I was not learning anything from it. Now think about the vast number of people who watch the local news every night and thats the only news they ever get. No wonder why everyone thinks American are so self-centered, the local news is all about things that only effect people in their area. I could rant more but that would turn this into an essay rather than a comment. So in conclusion, good points Brian.