Today more and more news organizations are reporting on superficial topics, such as celebrity gossip and fashion trends, rather than focusing on topics that are shaping the world around us, such as foreign policy and environmental trends.
I believe that the primary function of news is to inform the public, not to entertain them.
It is understandable, however, that news industries are more concerned about driving a profit. Today it seems as if the majority of people are more concerned with celebrity gossip than they are with world issues. In order for newspapers to survive they must report on what the people want.
The news today is like skipping dinner and going straight to dessert. Dinner is what fills you up, gives you energy and nourishment but it often doesn't taste as good as dessert. So people just skip dinner and go straight to dessert, they enjoy it without realizing that they are becoming unhealthy as a result. Likewise, skipping world affairs and going straight to gossip is slowly poisoning our society.
Whether or not it is ethical is a different question. While it is a bad thing that news organizations are focusing more of their resources into celebrity gossip, it keeps them alive. And without news organizations people would be ill-informed and likely believe anything that is spouted out at them.
I believe that the problem is not with news organizations, rather, society itself. Society drives the news by deciding what kind of information they are going to consume, and because newspapers cannot force people to consume their information, they must produce topics that please the people.
They say that in order to change an alcoholic's behavior, you have to start with the inside out. You can't change an alcoholic by taking away his booze, he will just want it more. Rather, you have to get inside his head and make him want something else more, a better life.
I believe it is the same way with society, you have to get inside society (I believe through the education system) and make it want to be well informed. You can't just throw news at them that they don't want.
I see your point. There is a tendency for the public to soak up a lot more of the juicy, sexy content than the meaty stuff. But I also think that there is value in the juicy news too. Perhaps the public isn't getting as informed as we journalists would hope they would be, but it is a good thing too for folks to read about things that they are interested in. Celebrity gossip and realty T.V. are a part of our society just as politics and economics are.
ReplyDeleteNevertheless, I agree the journalism market is becoming a bit too saturated with gossip. We need more major news organizations to put their feet down and continue to write and report on the meaty issues. We need to keep investigative journalism alive.
But in the meantime, why not flip through the glossy pages of gossip-central America while on an airplane or waiting at the DMV? At least you are reading, and engaging in some aspect of culture and current events.
I have to wonder if what's happening is that there is still the same amount of hard news around (except for investigative pieces) but that the gossip news is just higher profile so that stations can get more hits.
ReplyDeleteDo we actually know what percentage of news coverage goes to which topics?
I'll try to look this up.
And I agree with Jean Spencer that we need to keep investigative journalism alive, but that takes time and resources. If what the public wants and will pay for is gossip news, then gossip news and investigative journalism are inextricably linked in that gossip news funds investigative journalism. (Which is a little ironic.)
Your other posters have hinted on this, but what you're bemoaning is the attention economy. The rewards and payoffs for different kinds of content are different, and there's been a fundamental shift of water cooler discourse in recent years. Something to think about and explore.
ReplyDeleteGood use of voice. You should identify yourself and your interest in this topic.