Sunday, April 29, 2012

What Are They Reporting?

Here is an actual front page headline in the national newspaper that leads all others in total circulation- 'Cheating husbands like Toyotas, wives crave Hondas'. Haha I'm not kidding that such stupidity is a front page headline. It's just one of many like that in newspapers everywhere. I think it reflects the growing frivolous nature of people as to what should be important to know and what should not be. Silly stories about cheaters preferring Toyotas belong on the pages of non serious journals, not mainstream media newspapers. (By the way, the article said cheating women preferred Hondas....It's a bad day for Japan, I guess)

Yes, the article is as crazy as the headline. I read it and wasn't informed about anything anyone would need to know. I wonder what kind of "survey" it was, why it was conducted and if Toyota is happy to know it is the cheater car...or something. Hmmm What would the world do without this information? I would love to find out. But the question is why do media outlets report the insignificant as if it were the important? I think it's because people want to be entertained far more than they want to be informed.

In reaction to a less educated and caring public, the mainstream news mediums that are allegedly reporting news instead give us opinion, slant, the insignificant, the bizarre anything to entertain or shake our emotions. It's tantamount to a math professor deciding to eliminate from the syllabus all instruction to Differential Geometry because the students would not be able to understand it or be as entertained if studying it. So the media gives us sweet dessert as every course. No wonder so many of the public is so badly informed about those things that really mater to themselves and to society as a whole.

The media sees how many are enthralled with news of the latest dysfunctional celebrity or how willing it is to let a "Reality TV" contestant to be seen as someone we should admire....simple because they receive media coverage. It sees that the public isn't interested in the less exciting but more important, nuts and bolts of what makes society work. It is aware that silly sells and substance does not.

What does this tell us about the state of our society. When the fringe news mediums become mainstream and the mainstream dumb down to their level it indicates the people have spoken. And what they are saying is that it is better to be ignorant and uninformed than to be aware of what really matters. Uh, for the record..I don't have a Toyota.....

No comments:

Post a Comment