In Amusing Ourselves To Death, Postman states that the sole purpose of television is to amuse and entertain the viewer, but what about the news? The news is filled with stories of murders, natural disasters, and death, right? How can the news be seen as entertaining and pleasurable? In response to this thinking, Postman points out that viewers still consider the news as a source of entertainment due to "the good looks and amiability of the cast, their pleasant banter, the exciting music that opens and closes the show, the vivid film footage, (and) the attractive commercials"(pg 87).
As I read this, I had to agree with him. How can viewers take a news broadcast seriously if it appears that the newscasters care more about their looks than the stories that they are to tell? The news does have the ability to be seen as serious when newscasters mention important and life-affecting updates but loses its seriousness when these updates are followed by other updates and commercials of irrelevance. When advertisers, producers, and newscasters care more about the "look" and success of the news rather than its content, how can we, the viewers, take the news seriously?
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I feel like the newscasters do care much about the look, but that is not why we do not take it seriously. While some people do watch the news to become acquainted in current events, most of our generation cares more about being "entertained." Our society like having exiting stories to tell, and when we see how exiting the upcoming news is, we decide to stay and watch. Our society no longer watches the news to become informed. To us, it has become yet another form of entertainment.
ReplyDeleteI very much comply with cgonzalez. Today's television audience has little patience or interest in watching a news channel when there are many other television programs showing exciting and compelling things. This makes it difficult for the news stations to obtain viewers, therefore they must grab the attention of the an audience somehow. The news is now filled with newscasters that are concerned with their looks, and seems as if they talk about celebrity gossip more than they do the weather.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with cgonzales, but I would also like to add one other point: we do not take the news seriously because of parodies of the news. As an example, I would like to point out this video: Daily Show Jon Stewart Destroys Bill Kristol on Health Care (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa69puS7J0Q)
ReplyDeleteBut not only does this entertain us and makes us unable to take it seriously as Postman wrote in Amusing Ourselves To Death, but Jon Stewart provides us, the viewers, with information such as loopholes in programs like health care. But in the end, it all results on how we interpret it to be serious or not.
In my opinion, the televised news stations can not be taken seriously. cgonzalez makes a good point in saying that it has become a form of entertainment, but there is also another reason why televised news is not completely accurate. All televised news stations are hosted by HUMANS. People in general are biased, and information relayed by a human is tainted by the thoughts of that person.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with Angel. In the intro that Postman's son Andrew wrote, he mentions his "..father's 'Now...this' idea: the phenomenon whereby the reporting of a horrific event--a rape or a five-alarm fire or global warming-- is followed imediately by the anchor's cheerfully exclaiming 'Now...this,' which segues into a story about Janet Jackson's exposed nipple or a commercial for lite beer, creating a sequencing of information so random, so disparate in scale and value, as to be incoherent, even psychotic."
ReplyDeleteI fully and honestly agree with what Andrew Postman says because the news should only be for tragic and/or world wide events that are happening, not what some celebrity was wearing the night before on the red carpet. there are special shows for stuff like that. For exaple, TMZ talks about all the celebrities so why do they have to be mentioned on the daily news?