"You shall operate in the public interest, convenience and necessity." - Ted Koppel. Section 315 of the FCC code.
This was before The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and "To Catch a Predator" were considered hard news. Now, we have made it acceptable for the death of JWoww's puppy to make headlines before the Immigration Crisis or Malcolm Turnbull becoming the new prime minister of Australia. The mentality behind the news years ago was to enlighten Americans as a public service but today it seems the only goal of the "news" is to gain as much popularity and make as much money as humanly possible.
Journalism is now being measured with the same yardstick as entertainment. News clips are now found on the internet and stories about the same basic event are twisted and manipulated into what the people want to hear with no regard for what they need to hear. Rather than putting out a quality, factual, relevant news story, it is now a competition to see who can share the most incomplete story with the public the quickest. Who cares about making retractions later and misinforming thousands, sometimes millions of individuals who are too conditioned to think a certain way to question the media they are in-taking? Ratings are all that matter now as far as TV is concerned, and the budgets to put on a fascinating show that viewers will tune into are dwindling.
With all of the different delivery methods for releasing news that we now have, it is difficult to tell where the most accurate information is going to come from. Journalists used to track down stories and witnesses, check their facts and be sure the information was as accurate and relevant as possible. Today, the wire service provides the basics of an event, available to any journalist hungry for a story. These puzzle pieces are then manipulated to fit into any variation of the story that these journalists want. Often times, the facts get overshadowed by the fancy mumbo-jumbo the journalist uses to dress up the event, as if it isn't important enough from the start.
The focus of the beats and stories that are covered has broadened significantly over the years, making almost anything you hear about seem relevant if you don't actually filter through the information. Many people, professional and otherwise, tend to believe that these additions to how the news industry works are a step forward, but I'm not so sure. What's next? We'll have to pay for our news. So much for a public service.
I'm a sucker for a good reality show or tabloid heading, as are most of you I'm sure, but there needs to be a line drawn between news and gossip. Gossip is intended to be what we want to hear, a few moments for us to be petty and forget about our worries by magnifying someone else's issue. News is meant to be what we need to hear, oftentimes for our own benefit and well-being, but somewhere down the line the boundary was crossed and the signals confused. Now, we live in a society where missing the evening news doesn't matter as long as we've got our twitter feed open on our smart phones.
This is not my attempt to knock modern technology, or the advances made in journalism and media. It is simply my attempt to get people thinking for themselves and searching for more than just the photos of Kylie Jenner's PDA with Tyga. Pick up a newspaper, consider your sources of news. As a matter of fact, consider what you think news should consist of and what the most important information is to consume in your few moments of free time.
"To the extent that we're now judging journalism by the same standards that we apply to entertainment - in other words, give the public what it wants, not necessarily what it ought to hear, what it ought to see, what it needs, but what it wants - that may prove to be one of the greatest tragedies in the history of American journalism." -Ted Koppel
The link below is to a three part documentary about the changes in the news industry:
