Friday, 6 June 2008

Journalism Students Give Thumbs-Down to Broadcast News

You'd think journalists would be the biggest news watchers, Robert Niles posits in an article for Annenberg Online Journalism Review. But no--many journalists despise watching news on TV. And this is true for many of his journalism students.

Niles asked his students where they got their news, and got answers like "The Daily Show", "The Colbert Report" and "The Onion". When asked why they didn't watch regular TV news, they "complained about the titillation--fear-mongering crime reports, salacious coverage of the entertainment industries, reporters and anchor people glammed up to look like models. And when TV reports covered more serious issues, including politics, they result as little more than propaganda--talking points served up from two sides, with no analysis testing the claims, beyond petty insults."

In addition, "The broadcast majors among them expressed their revulsion at moving into an industry where 'good television' meant insults, violence and conflict, rather than information, engagement and enlightenment."

Pretty sad when future news professionals feel they're getting straighter stories from news parodies than from the shows being parodied.

Does anyone else remember that movie "Network", with William Holden and Faye Dunaway? How visionary was that?


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