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Suncoast Pasco News
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Media heads back to 1920s
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Published: July 4, 2009
The prevalence of feel-good stories, or the lack thereof, is slowly deteriorating journalistic integrity.
The D.C. Metro crash, Mexican drug war, North Korea's constant cries for attention, the overthrow of the Honduran president, and what is becoming the Iran election scandal - common front page headlines - have been shuffled to the back of the papers and our minds as Hollywood deaths capture attention.
It's like a throwback to the 1920s, when sensationalist stories created for the sake of ensuring a profit littered the papers. In today's world; however, these stories aren't fabricated. They're real and overexploited by mainstream media outlets.
It's ironic how the death of a high-profile star can be linked to the image of a feel-good story. One's final breath is a tear-jerking finale to life.
The gut-wrenching comes when facets of the world are abandoned in order to chronicle stars' lives, from beginning to end.
When the recent wave of celebrity deaths - Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon, Michael Jackson - crashed, media outlets became jammed as we rushed to cover the stories. We seemed to be hoping that if enough attention were granted, we'd uncover the reason for the premature death or a hidden personal experience, and become immortalized as they have been.
In the efforts to arrive at the scene first, cords were rashly pulled out of the Iran, Metro crash and Korea coverage outlets, leaving the wires raw and exposed for whatever weather they might endure.
There's no immediate personal connection to these stories. The rioting in Tehran is a distant reminder of what the U.S. engaged in 233 years ago. (Boston Tea Party, anyone?) The clubs and cries don't reach us like the way tenor vocals and pin-up posters do.
Current event debacles, stripped of media coverage, result in sparks when outlets return to reapply interest. Behind on days' worth of information, the catch-up process produces loopholes, resulting in a lack of quality reaching the masses.
It's similar to the way an outlet works after short-circuiting.
There's still a flow, but it sputters, tripping over the leaps needed to make a connection.
But maybe it feels good.
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