Lets face it, most people would rather read the National Enquirer than the NY Times. Soft news sells better than controversial or influential stories. When Beyonce Knowles became pregnant with her first child, it was, and continues to be, the talk of the town.
Not to say that I don't care about Beyonce's baby-- wait... I don't. With all of the social issues facing us today, I understand the need for a break from stories about corrupt politicians, robberies and murders; but at some we have to say enough is enough. If people had given half of the energy to actual social issues that they give to celebrities, we could actually make social change and progress.
This decline in news quality content is attributed to the concentration of media ownership in a select few hands. In an attempt to attract more news media consumers, advertising rates are distorted which effectively forces smaller outlets to either cease programming or assimilate their format to a more profitable one resulting in less diversity in programming. Also, there is a less critical coverage of the media industry because of the interests of maintaining a corporate image and in favor of self-promotion and because reporting the news has ceased to be a public service and has become another product that brings in profits. On page 240, Bennett notes that, “news content shifts to infotainment formats,” because of the economic effectiveness of soft news.
While the merging of news corporations diluted the news, Bennett points out on page 229 that the merging of entertainment and news has brought key issues to groups that are otherwise closed off to politics and news. Unfortunately, the information may be so fragmented that it is difficult to understand in terms of the big picture.
So go ahead and indulge in trivial mindless 'news' drivel, just make sure to read some hard news as well. :)
I completely agree. I hate walking up to the checkout counter and seeing that Opra is actually an alien on some magazine. If the switched those magazines out with actual news magazines people might be more informed. If people stopped watching TMZ and started watching the news people would be better off. People need to take a look at what kind of news they are consuming. They need to start paying attention to the issues that matter.
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