This is the lecture that I have been waiting for. Throughout the semester, our course material has been dancing around the topic of why news is news. This lecture established the ideas I already had in my mind. There are a bunch of researched factors that explain why some news is popular and other news is forgotten.
No one really has to intently look to see why sometimes seemingly pointless stories show up in the national news cycle. I can remember all the major stations covering stories akin to dogs riding surf boards, celebrity weddings and the results of reality television. Those are some of the reasons I don't watch television any more. Somewhere, there are people who are actively listening and caring about news such as this. Celebrities may not be actually relevant to anyone's lives, but some people believe that that they are. I was not surprised when I found that conditions such as negativity, elite nations, conflict, etc., made news stories more popular generally.
From my perspective, as a student journalist, this is interesting. I'm the one who may or may not produce news stories. According to our lecturer, journalists just acquire an ability to produce interesting and popular stories. Media outlets don't have an established set of news values that journalists try to adhere to. I never plan on ending up in a news room for a general media outlet. I also don't plan on becoming a typical journalist.
No comments:
Post a Comment