Bob Garfield at Advertising Age has some commentary on the Tiger Woods coverage that highlights why the news industry is dying.
The point is, human interest and solid reporting do not necessarily add up to real news. For that we depend not on the tabloids or the internet or, God help us, cable. We depend on real newspapers, whose editors and reporters have the experience and judgment to separate the wheat from the chaff, to lead with the Afghan troop escalation, not Escalade acceleration. This week, the layoffs again numbered in the hundreds.
One or two reporters for a tabloid and legions of bloggers can provide the Tiger coverage for almost nothing. Knuckleheads like myself can provide political commentary for free. And, at the end of the day, it’s more or less sound and fury, signifying little or nothing. I’m repeating myself here, but where newspapers and journalists really add value is when they spend the time, talk to the people, review the documents and report what is actually happening on matters that have a direct impact on our lives. Tiger and the White House gate crashers might be fun to talk about, but they aren’t news.
The more the news industry hitches its wagon to these stories that are cheap to report, attention grabbing, and don’t gore any oxen, the more the industry is making itself irrelevant. With real reporting on real news, the profits are thinner and the work is harder, but the service is irreplaceable.
Doug, Sorry to communicate via blog comment, but I don’t have an email for you. Jim Brown and I are team-teaching a course called “Mass Media and Public Affairs” next semester. I can send you the syllabus. The room has not yet been assigned, although it will be in the Business/SPEA building, but the time is 3:00 to 4:30 Mondays and Wednesdays.
Would you possibly be able to address the class on February 17th? The subject that day is “Grassroots, Netroots and American Politics.” I say “addressed,” but what we really have in mind is a conversation with the students; you would begin with your own observations—in this case, about the interrelationship between media and politics—and then we would open it to a class discussion. In the past, students in this class have been highly engaged, so discussion has not been a problem!
If this is possible, please contact me at shekenne@iupui.edu, and I’ll send the syllabus, etc. I would really love to have an intelligent, thoughtful blogger talk to this class!!
Please let me know if this works for you.