The News

A bit more about the Eeyore Report...

FoxNews has a report on why fewer and fewer young people pay attention to the news.

"It's just murder, murder and murder and then whatever is on the government's agenda," said Central High senior Alison Margolies. "It would be nice if it wasn't just terror and the war."

Margolies was among a majority of students who said the media aren't reporting enough "good news." That comes as an awakening to many adults who say they don't want young people to believe that the world of child kidnappings and killings drawn by TV news is anywhere near an accurate reflection of the world in which they live.

Most of the students said they wanted to see the media do a better job of rounding out reporting on horrific events.

"When you look at some news, it makes you feel unable to do anything for your world. ... Instead of just showing that people are dying in Sudan, you could show what this high school and other groups are doing [to help the victims]," Margolies said.

This is an age where anyone can produce just about anything in any medium and distribute it to a worldwide audience via the Internet. I mentioned Arthur Chrenkoff's good news about Iraq. He's just a blogger, doing his homework, and many people pay attention to the links he provides and they hear something more than the media's incessant "car bomb" reporting. The story of Iraq is much bigger than that Eeyore view.

In the FoxNews report, some people profess a horror at the decline of interest in the media.

Calling news culture “a valuable thing in a democracy,” Gregory Moore, editor of the Denver Post, agreed that a declining interest in the news has very serious consequences.

And now back to my crazy life. I'm about midway through the huge project that I'm doing at work. I've got about two more weeks of long days ahead. I think I'll go camping for a weekend with my sons when it's over. And of course, we'll be news-free during that time.

And after that, a lot of painting... which I'm missing big time.

by Brett Rogers, 6/22/2005 7:32:38 AM
Permalink

Hee, hee...I find it ironic that Fox News of all places is commenting on this. :-)

Still, here's what I believe is an interesting result of the Eeyore style of reporting and the culture of fear and hopelessness it feeds. Seems the little boy in Utah who was missing for four days hid from searchers because he was afraid he'd get kidnapped. It's so sad that we don't seem any longer to be able to differentiate, or remember to teach children to differentiate, the difference between asking for help and putting oneself in harms way.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8313299/

Poor baby. I'm glad he's all right. But it breaks my heart to think of a child not only afraid for his life because he's out in the wilderness, but also because he thinks that the people who are trying to help him might steal him.

I wish I could believe there is as much good news in the world as you do, but I do believe what there is is, indeed, terribly underreported.

I need to share a little tale here about Bob Schieffer. I like him so much more than Dan Rather...and part of that is because he winked at me at a book signing once, but I digress. :-) One night I was watching the news and at the end was a little puff piece about the Chinese government releasing some footage of three little pandas that were celebrating their first birthday. Bob's comment was something like this, "The Chinese stated no particular reason for this news release other than to show that the pandas were well and because people like looking at pictures of pandas." I busted out laughing. DO NOT GET ME WRONG---we should NOT be taking reporting lessons from the Chinese--our government is covering up enough stuff---but I give the new regime at CBS news a little credit for allowing a little fun...even if it is at the end of a half hour of bad news. I guess I always thought the job of the news was to inform---not just about current events, but also maybe about things that are just kind of neat. Like pandas. :-)

Posted by Bella, 6/22/2005 2:48:23 PM

Your anecdote of that little boy who was afraid of being kidnapped... wow. Great point, Bella. Glad that he was found, but to be in fear that much is horrible.

And maybe Bob and the crew at CBS got your memo about the beauty of squirrels. Have they noticed that maybe their lawn needs mowing? Life is more than just the latest statistic.

I am determined to find good news. As soon as I finish with this project in a couple of weeks, I'll rev up the programming engine to glean GoogleNews for good news.

Posted by Brett Rogers (http://www.beatcanvas.com), 6/23/2005 7:42:46 AM