TV news and newspaper has always been providing world’s major events. They both play an important role in our life ever since TV was invented and the advent of newspaper. Early 17th Century, everyone received information and world event through the publication of newspaper, then TV and internet was introduced where you get more visual on the event such as live video. Information published from these sources are considered the most accurate and credible. However, reading a newspaper is more effective as a provider of important information than TV. With TV news you have certain times that you must tune in, such as twelve or ten o'clock news, to catch what is going on in the world today. And even when you do catch the news those designated time slots on TV they show what people want to see rather than what they need to know to better TV ratings. With TV it is easy to grab the attention of their audience but hard to keep it for an entire show, losing its effectiveness as a provider of important information.
Usually when major events occur in the world; for avid daily news watchers, it interrupts their morning routine with a red blaring headline titled "Quake in Chile" or "Suicide bomber kills in attempt to assassinate WORLD LEADER”. If CNN isn't your cup of tea in the morning, the drive to work listening to the radio might be. The radio isn't just for music, so if something major has occurred then it definitely would be mentioned over the airwaves. And at the chance that you are neither a news watcher or a radio listener then you would still hear the breaking news in passing. Be it at your workplace or at school. You'd have to be living under a rock to NOT know. News travels fast, so if you didn't hear about it before you left your house. You will definitely hear about by the time you get home.
In this time of day, information is so easily available that is basically at our fingertips, literally. With the advent of smart phones, we can now easily access the web and obtain the news for ourselves. We can easily turn to the net, for information right away because. Breaking news would be updated online the same way it is on TV. With everything that is shown on the news, it shouldn't be taken at face value. Don't automatically believe that because it is on the news that it's indeed fact, or that it is indeed the truth. Sometimes news headlines that probably aren’t as important as other ones are blown out of proportion. For example, "Breaking news, list dog finds his way home after being lost at the mall." Incredible. Yes, to a certain extent, but hardly "news breaking" worthy. So it's falls up to you, the public, to sift through the crap the media feeds us and find out which topics really hold meaning and are indeed "breaking news."
Either I'm absoutely exhausted - it is 10:47 pm on a Sunday night and I've been awake since 4:00 am - or this blog post really is as fantastically written as I think it is! I intend to read it again in a day or two just to be sure, but I really think this is the most well written blog that I have seen so far this semester. Your statement about sifting through the crap the media feeds us is exactly the way I feel about the situation as well. It makes me crazy when I see the nonsense that they report as breaking news which is hardly newsworthy at all. The truth is that the oweness, although it should fall on the veracity of the reporting establishment, falls on us as the consumers. We are either stupid enough to believe everything or we're smart enough to use our own brains in determining what is important to retain and what is better discarded from our memory banks. Great post!
ReplyDeleteGreat blog. You really did an excellent job covering all the different types of news technology we have. There is an extremely diverse set of channels through which we receive news, it quite incredible and i love how you mentioned that even if we don’t hear it from a technological source we’ll here it from another human. This speaks volumes about the process of communication and how people can act as a major extension of the news media. Do you feel the news ever gets twisted when you are hearing it from another person, rather than from the “direct” source of the the media?
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned that tv and newspaper are thought to be very credible sources, why do you think this is? Does the internet warrant the same level of respect an trust in its credibility? Why or why not?
Great blog though, really makes you think about what you hear and think twice about tv news, as to whether the story is that big, or if its being stretched as a filler for the show. I wonder how much of a news show is purely fluff, when their isn’t a natural disaster or a car chase.
Great blog, eagerly await the next one : )
- Ben Andrews