Sandy Davidson, a Communications Law professor, spoke to our FIG and other journalism students two months ago (I know, what a timely blog piece, right?) and the issues discussed are still churning around in my brain, ranging from the election to the nature of news.
Davidson shared with us a few stores from Newsweek about Sarah Palin and other key figures in the election that really made me question the nature of news today.
As journalists, it is our duty (or desire/obsession/ life choice) to cover the news.
However, when the stories being reported on become merely gossip about celebrities serving jail time and corrupt politicians, can one really call that news? Sure it is new, entertaining information that satiates that little gossiping monster inside of all of us, but it is certainly not news.
News is relevant information to our lives. News is also whatever the audience wants to read about. But when the audience wants more Britney and Paris, should the news business ignore that, especially when newspapers across the country are dropping like flies?
I believe the answer is no, even though part of me feels like the gossip is tainting the newsy-credibility just a little bit.
Another interesting trend I have noticed is that while various news-media outlets are covering more entertainment stories, girly gossip magazines are covering an occasional issue more pressing than the latest addition to the Jolie-Pitt clan.
Maybe someday there will just be one massive media group: a place where People, Time, CNN, and Cosmo are one and the call their product news. I ,for one, hope that day isn’t tomorrow as I am not sure I could handle that in addition to my biology lab final.
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1 comment:
Haha, nice title! ;)
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