Jun 29 2009
News in the Era of MTV - Part I
We’re going to take a different tack today, I’d like to look at the news business in general. We are know in touch with the pulse of the world in seconds not days. Michael Jackson is a prime example. Is this a good thing? Or is it information overload? Let’s explore…
News in the Attention Deficit era…
Master! master! news, old news, and such news as you never heard of.—Shakespeare
Some tell, some hear, some judge of news, some make it.—Dryden
I well believe it, to unwilling ears
None love the messenger who brings bad news.
Sophocles – Antigone
What is “News”? What defines the dissemination of facts and fallacy? When is a tid-bit news? And when is it “stuff”?
What exactly IS news? Can news really be “New”? Or, as the Peter Allen song goes, is it merely: “Everything Old is New Again”.
Witness below this conversation from Shakespeare’s “King Richard”
First Cit. Good morrow, neighbour: whither away so fast?
Sec. Cit. I promise you, I scarcely know myself:
Hear you the news abroad?
First Cit. Ay; that the king is dead.
Sec. Cit. Ill news, by’r lady; seldom comes the better:
I fear, I fear, ’twill prove a giddy world.
Enter a third Citizen.
Third Cit. Neighbours, God speed!
First Cit. Give you good morrow, sir.
Third Cit. Doth the news hold of good King Edward’s death?
Sec. Cit. Ay, sir, it is too true; God help the while!
Third Cit. Then, masters, look to see a troublous world.
First Cit. No, no; by God’s good grace, his son shall reign.
Third Cit. Woe to that land that’s govern’d by a child!
Sec. Cit. In him there is a hope of government,
That in his nonage council under him,
And in his full and ripen’d years himself,
No doubt, shall then and till then govern well.
Shakespeare-Richard the Third
One could interpret this dialogue as commentary on our new “young” president? Perhaps the symbolic “changing of the guard from Bush I to Bush II?
In this instance, news can be defined as knowledge brought to light that we had not encountered before.
“It’s news to me!”
I believe that we can distill the notion of news down to a one sentence abstract: News is the comings and goings of man; births, deaths, and everything in between.
When did news become NOWs?
When the Titanic went down, April 14th, 1912, there was a group of African refugees; the country eludes me; that had been traveling in drayage. Drayage technically refers to the cargo holds. In other words, to maximize profit, not only were there 1st, 2nd, and 3rd class decks, passage was also sold for drayage. People were traveling in the cargo holds as well!! Poor records were kept, as there was a language barrier involved. We don’t know exactly how many people were on board from Africa.
What we DO know is that news of the tragedy took over three years to reach the relatives of these travelers!! Is this still News?
(Next – News in the electronic age)
Stumble It!