I was browsing through the Boston Channel 5 News website today to find something to write on for my blog piece. Scrolling down the page, I noticed that they had an entire section on the website devoted to “Irresistible News”. Curious, I opened the link to find headlines such as “Social Dancing Banned in New York” and “Costumes for Cats A Felony?” Then, on the right hand side of the page was a section labeled “The Most Viewed Stories” and two of the four stories listed were “Clothes Drying in Oven May Have Sparked Fire” and “Cutest Kitten Winner and Finalists”. On top of that, all of the top headline stories were, in my opinion, fluff topics such as the jackpot in MassMillions lottery, the upcoming Oscars, and the Anna Nicole Smith trial. The only decent news report was about the 800 contractors who have been killed in Iraq thus far and their generally unaccounted casualties.
It maddens me to think that a cute kitten would outdo the importance of civilian casualties in Iraq. This returns back to the idea of new news and no news, but I simply find it upsetting what the American population sees as something worth their time looking up and the fact that the media is quick to feed the public that entertainment. Yet, is this emergence of new news found only in the United States? How do other countries view the role of media and news reporting? I find that the BBC International News website consistently reflects stories of importance. The only entertainment orientated article I found when I looked online today was about the creation of a cricket shaped "Batmobile" made in India – but since out of all the stories on the page the fact that that article is the only fluff story, does that indicate something about American’s concern for international affairs, let alone national problems? Yet, looking at a main newspaper in Russia called Arguementi i Facti, there seems to be just as much an even amount of “real” news pieces versus fluff entertainment topics. To be noted though, after the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia formulated many of its capitalist enterprises after American models, the newspaper industry one among the formulas. In the end, is American journalism a model approach that the rest of the world looks up to, or are we leading only ourselves into an age of apathy for “real” news? Yes, I know this blog has many questions, but I know that right now, I simply can not offer any answers.
The Boston Channel 5 NewsBBC International NewsАргюменты и Факты
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