SMC Media Criticism Blogs

In New York representatives from 191 nations gathered for the 59th meeting of the UN General Assembly. President Bush welcomed everyone, as it is traditionally done, and proceeded to back his war efforts for the next 24 minutes. Discussed in this session of On the Media, Brooke Gladstone hosts Editor in Chief of the United Press International, Martin Walker. Discussed is how news coverage on the National Assembly in the U.S. is much different than in the rest of the world. Still disconnected in views of 9.11, what is being highlighted in the press about Bush remains so.

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We all talk about and discuss why humor in news is important or relevant to our generation, but do we understand why? Do we actually get the purpose of communicating certain messages through a specific means and what it means? Television is frustrating. I never thought of Fox as being a conservative news source until recently because I don’t use the T.V. as my medium. But as soon as I took it on as my responsibility to discern between Fox and CNN I realized that as a comm major and as a television targeted era it was my responsibility to become and stay aware of what was being put where.
I am a big fan of Neil Postman, and I know the name is familiar to all. Whatever is on the news, is news. Is that so? Well it is so, but wrongly so. Whatever catches an audiences attention can make the news. You know, that is why I like Late Night shows like Letterman or especially Conan. They make fun of what the public is attracted to, but at the same time they are simply selling out to what the public is attracted to. It is genious. They serve us what we hate to love, and then mock it and we understand how lame it is. We are the lame ones. However, humor in the news has gotten more people to actually listen to and pay attention to the everyday issues we are faced with as a country because it is such a universal language. Nonetheless we are feeding off the same biased messages we are fighting against. Don’t get me wrong, I prefer Conan over any guy on CNN or Fox, but he is getting paid to do the same thing... getting us to like him and his point of view. That’s why at first there was only Leno and Letterman, but now there are too many too count. I do believe humor lightens the inherent sadness of news and it offers a comic relief to the constant heaviness.
I do think that using such a language as humor, sarcasm, and cynicism will get you far when trying to relate to such a jaded era as ours, but it also seems so easy to me that we slip into the other side that we forget that we can think for ourselves. What is the news trying to tell us? No matter what outlet or genre it is put through, what is it trying to do? Remember it is all commercial. Television news should definitely not be the only way you get your information.

It is hard to determine which generation truly is the MTV generation. Is it us, the ones that sat there watching MTV turn into a media monster, the ones that saw Madonna and Michael Jackson before they were old, the ones that actually looked at pop-up video on VHI as important facts? Or is it the youth now that breaths, sleeps, and eats every word of cool MTV puts out. Television has been the strongest form of media known to mankind, in my opinion, because what we demand becomes all we get, and then we forget to demand. Where do all our interests go when we are fed all we could ever imagine? As Shawn Olsen says in his article "MTV Generation", regarding the bombardment of pop-culture ideals, "[It] can only narrow your mind and suppress your ability to appreciate the variety of art and human subjects available in our world." (www.shawnolsen.net)

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Growing up I didn't watch much television and I didn't know much about politics. The only thing I was really subjected to in terms of politics was sitting down with my parents and looking at voting information on certain issues and figures. I always went with them to vote, and as soon as I hit 18, I depended on them to help me make the right choices. I was more influenced by what they believed than anything else, I still wasn't watching much television or reading magazines like People or Us. I was never told what to believe, but just to believe something.

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Brooke Gladstone on NPR's "On the Media" presented listeners with the case of anti-Kerry and anti-Bush ads that have only steered focus off real issues. These men have been using Sen. John McCain as a "football" carrying nothing but contradicting support for one another's flippant remarks. Needless to say, McCain disapproves of the men using him in such a way to deter negative attention on their war histories.

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