Avid watchers of the news over the past decade will have noticed something: Media companies now package the news as they do TV programs, motion pictures, and DVD releases.
Consider the coverage of Hurricane Katrina over the last few days. The news channels regaled their audiences with snazzy logos for the crisis. CNN even billed itself as “Your Hurricane Home” or “Your Hurricane Channel” or something like that. Or think about how the media handled the invasion of Iraq a few years ago. Each of the networks had its own “Operation: Iraqi Freedom” design and accompanying fanfare. If viewers didn’t know better, they might have thought they were watching an exciting new drama from Don Bellisario. That’s especially the case given how antiseptically the American media handled a scary and brutal war.
I know I’m not alone in thinking all this packaging of the news is… crass! When human beings are suffering and dying, prefacing stories of their pain with a flashy graphic and a jaunty tune disrespects them. It downplays the serious of their ordeals. And it makes newscasters seem like profiteers of human misery.
A return to some of the old practices of news, such as handling tragedies seriously, shouldn’t be an unreasonable desire. The media accomplished serious reporting on September 11, 2001, so we know such is not beyond the media’s capabilities.
It shouldn’t lie beyond their usual sensibilities, either.
About the Author
I'm Jason Vines, a web developer at a research institution in Washington, DC. I graduated from George Washington University with a bachelor's degree in political science, with a minor in journalism. I enjoy philosophy and web scripting, as well as reading, writing, history, video games, travel, and photography.
