News today has become more powerful and revealing, showing
nearly all of the important events that happen daily. It allows for quick,
precise information for all who watch and helps pass along important info, such
as weather, to the people that need it. In regards to the event that happened
on September 28, I believe that it was an accident and has been blown out of
proportion. I have yet to see the actual footage but based upon the movies and
violence we see today in the media this news video is most likely tame in
comparison. The job of the news is to retrieve the whole story yet there are
good reasons for not showing the shooting but accidents happen. This story
definitely grabbed the spotlight though showing people are interested in the
untold parts of a story. That is one reason I think the news broadcasts live
car chases because the excitement of not knowing what will happen hooks the
audience and leads to better ratings. They were only doing their job and if
they did not show the suicide they would have needed to talk about it anyway to
satisfy the curiosity of the audience. What should be shown on the news has
become a controversial subject in many cases. People desire to know what goes
on around them and in the city yet are repulsed when they witness the reality
of what they desire. Basic topics such as weather, sports, and politics will
soon be the only subjects discussed on the news. Ratings would go down since there
are no high end, attention grabbing stories to watch. Though this shooting is
tragic and should have not been aired it shows much of what we expect news to
be like. We want the rush of watching a live police chase but choose to avoid
the after effects of what took place.
You have some ideas that I agree with and some statements that undermine your overall point. I agree with you that the point of having news is to inform people about the world, things such as weather are important. You also state that it is the news company's job to give the full story, but what is relevant news? You say that it's their job to distribute important information that have an affect on people, but later on it is a car chase that is important? That doesn't make sense to me. Also, you say that the news have to relay the whole story, either in the form of a video or in speech, to satisfy their audience. This implies that they are entertainers.
ReplyDeleteI'm not saying that you believe that this is how it is supposed to be, I believe that you are comparing what news are supposed to do to what they really do. Although unintentionally, I feel that you pin-pointed an important issue; news are edging away from news toward economic gain at any cost.