Modern Culture
The Sad State of Mass Media

Can you find any hard news on the television? I mean a half to one hour of “news” not swallowed up or overshadowed by entertainment. Or, news without focusing on a personality. Like reporting on the Iraq conflict without a focus on Bush, Pelosi, Reed, Petraeus or Maliki. Allow the viewer to assess “successes” or “failures: by individuals elicited from the news events. All news is treated as a premise to a political or social position. Calling your program the “No Spin Zone” is itself spin.

During the 1996 election, I was interviewed at the Clearfield Diner about the election. Bill Clinton was running for his second term against Bob Dole. ABC was traversing I-80, stopping at diners along the way interviewing voters about their perception of the government as the campaign unfolded. Susan and I arrived at the diner about 10:30 a.m. I was treating her to breakfast after a dental appointment. When we arrived we could see there was something unusual occurring. A woman dressed like she stepped off the pages of Vogue was there with an attractive well dressed man and another man looking more like a Clearfielder in dress, but who had a large hand held camera.

The woman came to our booth and asked if we would be willing to respond to some questions about the election. It was late September or early October. I said sure, and she spoke to the GQ guy and I was interviewed. The questioner was a second banana on the ABC Nightly News at the time…doing weekend broadcasts. In the interview I opined that television was part of the problem because of its sound bite method of reporting where nothing was covered in depth and there was jumping from story to story without opportunities to contemplate what was reported. Off camera I related that Neil Postman in Amusing Ourselves to Death had an incisive critique of the cultivation of non-thinking by television. The interviewer had never read the book. I sent it to him later and received a nice note from him thanking me for bringing Postman’s writing to his attention.

When the show aired, the interviewer, who was anchoring the news that Saturday night, mentioned my concern about the lack of contemplation television permits. He then said that tonight they would take Mr. Kriner’s suggestion and allow the audience to think about the issue before going to commercial. This was followed by 30 seconds of dead time with a blank screen, an experiment that cost ABC money!

Unfortunately, things have not become any better, at least on television. The content of television is about forms [entertainment] and choices [zillions of channels]. That which is superficial not serious; glitzy not plain and outrageous not commonplace is what attracts the choice of the watching public. Television, like almost everything else in our culture has been commodified. And, we consume what we like or desire. In a circular way, television creates the desires and likes of the viewer by offering what it does. It is an endless cycle without a way out. Back in 1996, I was incorrect in my presumption. I thought if more time for thought was given to folks, they would come to decisions themselves. Folks do not want to think and the mass media does not want them to think either…a perfect marriage

Remember Huntley, Brinkley, Swayze, Cronkite? If you do not, go back and look at some old footage. It was television, and therefore images, but the speed, excitement, immediacy and entertaining value of what was presented was unbelievably different from today. Yes, the images shown were carefully chosen then as now to convey a point of view. But, it was not so consumer oriented. It was news. Today, news divisions of networks and cable outlets differ very little from their entertainment counterparts. In fact, the 24 hour news networks are plunging deeper into entertainment because “news” is their form of entertainment. And, with the 24 hour folks, they want to be the first to deliver the next, and do so with dispatch. They want the consumer to choose them as their source for Brittany and other Hollywood hyjinks, political dirt and Amber Alerts.

The Mass Media is in a sad state for delivering news. But, they are doing what their consumers want, helping them with their wants along the way. The print media is in retreat because of the lack of desire for in depth reporting on stories. But, there is some hope with the Internet. More and more print media organizations are using the internet for news than can be consumed without speed, show and immediacy. Twelve years later, using 20-20 hindsight, and knowing the explosion of 24 hour “news”, I think I would recommend a new alternative. The screen on your television should be blank permanently…not just for 30 seconds. Get back to reading your news so that you can contemplate what is reported. Let us dispense with the speedy, innovative images of a Mass Media that fulfills our desires and makes us shameless consumers of entertainment that is big on form with little or no content.