Oftentimes, one turns on the news to a local broadcast channel and finds, instead of breaking coverage on revolutions in Egypt or the latest on Obama’s address to the people, the designer for the gown of the Royal Wedding. This just in: news coverage is showing a significant curve towards stories that reflect human interest. No longer is the top of the news an abrasive account of the gritty crimes and international issues but a silly repertoire of useless facts that are better suited for the View and Oprah’s network. Rather than tackling critical business affairs and groundbreaking coverage on foreign soil, major broadcasters like CNN and Fox have chosen to juxtapose top news with stories such as “Justin Bieber’s new haircut” and “Pippa Middleton–the next sensation?” with legitimate and under-covered stories such as the destruction in Alabama and the future of gas prices.
When the announcement of Osama Bin Laden’s death hit the airways, almost every news channel was covering the phenomena. CNN emerged as the most watched network during this time, with 7.8 million viewers at eleven at night, the time when Obama announced the death to the citizens in his public address (ew.com). However, this coverage hardly focused on the facts of the case and instead centered on the grueling and tear-jerking human interest stories that emanated from the 9/11 tragedy nearly ten years ago. The five-hour block of continuous coverage was dominated by sound bites from Obama’s address and little clarification on the facts of the case, instead focusing on repetitive announcements and emotionally filled memories. Senior Andre Mere commented: “I turned on the TV hoping to figure out what had happened but I ended up just turning off the TV and going to the internet.” The televised news is not doing an adequate job of informing the people on the legitimate facts and it is greatly damaging how many members of society are informed.
With the election of 2012 fast approaching, numerous Republican candidates have announced their candidacy but news stations seem to show only one preposterous nominee: Donald Trump. Who needs Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin when you have the real estate mogul and television personality who coined the expression “You’re fired”? Donald Trump has appeared on Fox News, MSNBC, CNN and ABC within the last few months with complaints about the Obama administration, dominating the airways with the infamous birth certificate argument. Trump announced to the New York Times that he was very serious about his campaign as his Celebrity Apprentice show concluded on May 22 (nytimes.com). News stations eat this coverage up, as conservatives bask in the anti-executive undertones and liberals rejoice in the absurdity of it all. However, coverage of these campaigns is seriously limited. Besides the fact that Trump has attempted to accurately discover Obama’s birthplace – even steeping so low as to send private investigators to Hawaii – what is his honest campaign platform? The media tends to show sound clips and talking heads of candidates but rarely highlights their opinions on issues. This informs the public to choose their presidential nominees based on their voice, appearance, and personality rather than their stances, public agenda, and budget proposals.
When the Royal Wedding arrived, everyone around the globe was in a flurry as Prince William and Catherine married in Westminster Abbey on April 29. The story was so far stretching that every news channel covered the issue and many started as early as four in the morning with staggering and nearly record-breaking viewer responses. While this charming human-interest story took place near Buckingham palace, tornadoes ravaged the south. While the news media faithfully covered the British monarchy, little information and coverage was given to the monumentally disruptive natural disaster that killed almost 300 people across six states. Some stations did break their coverage momentarily to provide clips of Obama in the damaged areas only to revert back to other, clearly more influential and important stories (nydailynews.com).
The dawn of a new and informed society is hardly in this country’s future. With media revolving around trivial and frivolous stories, actual facts are becoming harder to find and are ultimately not worth waiting for. Senior Tiffanie Pucillo noted, “Ill try to watch the news but I tend to turn it off because the pathetic issues they cover are so minor in comparison to the real issues there are in our community and the world.” Until local and national stations begin to show issues that are pertinent to the overall community, television coverage will yield little legitimacy.