Although this blog is not particularly about the passing of Mrs. Houston the title is quite catchy.
However I do find it that sadly, these novelty titles do seem to attract you the viewer as opposed to the alternate title to this post: "Fragmentation: Corrsion of the Muckraking Model"
"The orientation towards novelty and entertainment produces fragmented, discontinuous news... Fragmentation makes it difficult for audiences to peice together a coherent narrative of events." -Doris A. Graber
Where is the News in that?!
Well if you just so happen to be surfing the 'tube' and you stop at CNN it is sadly because the novelty story had caught your eye, and not the horror in Syria.
You see this is exactly the problem. According to the muckraking model (1) the media brings us the story , (2) we react to the story (3) through public opinion we enact policy (4) that policy produces an outcome.
So? What can we posibly do about this novelty news?! To fulfill this role of the muckraking model the media must bring us the story which MATTER, not novelty storys which brings to a halt what I see as the muckraking cycle which is important role of the media in which it becomes a connection between the Opinion of the Public and the Government of the Public
Please clarify this for me: Are you also suggesting a separation of information and entertainment?
ReplyDeleteWell it is times like this where the death of a celebratory jams the muckraking model which inhibits the media of playing it's role which is to bridge the gap between the people's opinion and their government. It is therefore that in cases like this that there should be a separation between information and entertainment in order for the media to effectively play its role.
ReplyDeleteExcellent!
ReplyDeleteDo you have any idea how that could be implemented? Because I agree with you 100% and have independently come to the same conclusion. I just can't figure how it could be put into action.
Well they would be going against their business model if they drop stories such as the death of Mrs. Houston due to the loss of coverage over a topic that is popular in the 'market place'. Sadly I think we may only access a constant flow of a variety of news, which serves the public, from public access news which does not concentrate its coverage on novelty news stories. I say sadly because this form of public access media is not as popularly used among the market place.
ReplyDeleteActually I think that's already happening. We have entertainment news and we have regular news. Cable networks focus on that kind of stuff because they're losing business. They're trying desperately to hold up a curve that's about to collapse in on itself.
ReplyDeleteI like the concept behind utilizing novelty and entertainment media as a way to "hook" readers. Once you have them reading or on the site, feed them something what we academics would deem important. I also think it provides a nice variety of news stories. But we can't keep beating the news like their shoving these stories down our throats, people like them, and they read them. We've established that, so let's just work around that or work with it. Use it as a way to hook people into to perhaps more relevant stories.
ReplyDeleteUsing entertaining news stories as "hooks" for an audiences does seem like a great idea! Sometimes, academic writings can be so dry, boring, and unappealing. Maybe academic media can take a lesson from infotainment and other entertainment news- use catchy titles and witty phrases!
ReplyDelete