(local)
1. Flooding in Red River Valley (1M)
2. Shooting in Lakeville (1M)
3. Fire in Minneapolis (1M)
(national)
4. Shooting in North Carolina (2M)
5. General Motors CEO Steps Down (1M)
6. NorthWest merges with Delta (3M)
WEATHER: (5M)
SPORTS: (6M)
ENTERTAINMENT/CONSUMER/HEALTH: (6M)
ADS: (9M)
I usually do not watch newscasts, so I was pretty intrigued by the ten o'clock Kare 11 News. First, I was surprised at the short amount of time each news story was given. It made me wonder: is it sufficient to know about the 'news', or is it effective to know the whole story? When I asked myself to summarize the stories I had heard in local news, my renditions mirrored exactly what the newscasters had presented. I knew of the 'news', but could not reiterate the whole story. In general, this newscast gave a very sweeping overview of current events.
Secondly, the majority of these stories were VERY depressing. In the first seven minutes, eleven people had been killed, five people hospitalized, and an entire community threatened. It certainly was not uplifting! In fact, the most uplifting story on the entire newscast (including the horrible weather report), was the national broomball championships visiting Richfield this weekend. I watched twenty eight minutes of commercials and horrific news to catch two minutes of an uplifting, promising event in our world.
These two observations made me wonder- Was this newcast depressing because I didn't have all the facts in the story, or would fully understanding each story have made this experience horrific? Are these newcasts purposefully empty to save us from impending depression, or does the emptiness encourage these feelings?
One thing is certain- I will continue to get my news from NYT in neat emails each morning!
You're right, rarely does the news have mostly happy stories. Except Madison; my family always jokes about how the "news" there is in this little bubble world: they don't focus on murders and other crimes, rather they focus on community events and weather (which is often depressing enough). I wonder how news stations could change their approach to increase the younger population watch more news? My students don't watch the news for the same reason you've identified: it's too depressing.
ReplyDeleteIts funny how the mood in the news always start out so intense and then lightens up towards the end. It seems as though each channel tries to be the most intense right at the start in order to draw viewers.
ReplyDeleteI hear you! I felt like the picture you posted as I watched the news! I have three kids & believe it or not they sometimes like to sit with me to watch the news....BUT my god how can I have them watching this stuff! Depressing -yes, yes, yes! So many ugly things--and I know that's part of life...but I don't want my kids to just see/hear about that! Where are all of the good things that go...and the hope? I guess those aren't "news."
ReplyDeleteIts interesting that we all watched different news broadcasts and they all had almost the same stories, is that ALL that is really going on in the world? How do they decide what is important--it obviously is not what we find important because we all seem disgruntled with the local news.
ReplyDeleteI totally felt the same way during the picture as well. I wanted to die because of the overall tone and boredom the news brought me.