The narrowing of the U.S. media agenda means less news all the time
“The State of the News Media, 2008,” a 700-page comprehensive look at the state of U.S. journalism by the Project for Excellence in Journalism and funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts was released today.
Of the many interesting things they found to talk about, one in particular caught my attention: The agenda of the American news media continues to narrow, not broaden.
People often talk these days about the 24-hour news cycle. Well, guess what, there has always been a 24-hour news cycle. I remember when CNN was referred to as “the fledgling Cable News Network.” I remember as a young journalist thinking about the amazing possibilities that would be laid before us in a true 24-hour news delivery cycle. I was excited about the stories we could cover if we just had more pages or air time to give them. Or maybe some of the stories we already were covering would be better because we could go more in-depth or produce more sidebars and follow-up stories.
Religion is a major source of friction in this country and around the world. Race relations are better in many ways but worse in so many others. Education – from philosophical debates to funding – is a major concern for parents with kids from kindergarten all the way through college. Transportation in this country is facing a major funding pothole – especially if you live in Michigan. The legal system is fraught with absurdity and abuse. Housing is exploding across the landscape one minute and tumbling down in a foreclosure hurricane the next. An aging population straining an already over-burdened health care and social protection network is a growing problem with generational repercussions.
These are the stories that could be told and should be told – all day, every day. Instead, the PEJ reports, each of the topics above each received less than 1% of the news hole in 2007.
Oops, I have to go now – there’s a breaking news alert about how much money Paul McCartney’s ex-wife is getting in their divorce settlement…
March 18th, 2008 at 7:45 am
Far too often, news organizations focus on pop culture as their news, not actual world events that shape the way we live our lives. Our society is so engrossed in the lives of other people and so-called “celebrities” and lose sight of the unemployment rates, economy, etc. Maybe the pop-culture world is our escape from the reality of our lives.
As Ari pointed out, there are many newsworthy topics that could be covered, and sometimes are, to the point of exhaustion. However, there is rarely follow-up on the story as another amendment of ethics (my polite way of saying “screwed up”) is made by a prominent politician or struggling pop star to take the top headline of major newspapers.
October 20th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
Nice post - thanks!