I noticed again last night, as I have over the last several
years, that most of the local news stations that I choose to watch concentrate
on negative stories. It’s the evening, post or pre dinner hour, in most homes, the news is on. Negative stories set the tone for the families watching.
Fear is one emotion depending of some story that says someone is prowling their
neighborhood, or worry that the stock market is heading down or insurance
premiums are heading up or school bus drivers are going on strike.
Some of the negative stories people need to know in order to
conduct their daily Lives, but a lot of the stories could be ignored or relegated
to a two-liner later in the newscast.
Unfortunately, the negative, the crime stories, the tragic and the
death and dying stories take precedence and an abnormal amount of available air
time. Other than the one or two stories in the hour or two-hour newscasts at
the end that’s supposed to make you feel good, I’d like to see more information that
helps me improve or even deal with the daily difficulties of just living.
Some stories last night were breaking news. Most stations
today have the capability with helicopters and positioned reporters to get to a
news story quickly and to tell you what they know live. The stories, however, were all negative or tragic.
In many ways, technology inhibits contextual understanding. The
information comes too fast, too skimpy, and often too inflammatory with the
emotions of the moment to present a complete story for viewer consideration. Watching
widely, reading widely, listening widely can help fix the discrepancy in
understanding. If you watch just one station, read one newspaper, listen to one radio station you are not informed.
No comments:
Post a Comment