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domingo, agosto 28, 2005
Consensus that news was the preserve of serious men who brought portentous and usually dire information to a mass market is over
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By far the most convincing apotheosis of Lewis's teaching, though, is being done by the market. The president of ABC News, David Westin, said recently: "I think morning television news may be an early indicator of where a good portion - not all - of TV news may be headed. By that I mean a balance of male and female, but with more of a female component; more storytelling; and looking at story-telling as a way to access news stories." Morning TV news, the most profitable and popular news offering, is positive news - news that deliberately seeks to start the day on an upbeat, news that people want to hear, because it's cheerful, or quirky, or hopeful, as much news isn't.
Is this what Lewis meant? Not wholly: he simply meant that the world was incomprehensible if the bulk of broadcast and newspaper news was taken as an adequate description of the world. It's incomprehensible because experience shows people in rich and settled countries that nothing is all bad, as most news is. Indeed, most material things are getting better, and have done for many decades.
The time when there was a consensus that news was the preserve of serious men who brought portentous and usually dire information to a mass market is over, though it is taking a long time to die. The market has decreed it for years: most people have simply ceased to be in thrall to the view that a grasp of the (bad) news is necessary for full citizenship. Journalism, bit by bit, is catching up, seeking to save what it can of the serious news agenda, to discover in which niches those who still want to get it reside and to determine if money can be made from them.
john.lloyd@ft.com
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FT.com / By industry / Media & internet - Seriously good
By far the most convincing apotheosis of Lewis's teaching, though, is being done by the market. The president of ABC News, David Westin, said recently: "I think morning television news may be an early indicator of where a good portion - not all - of TV news may be headed. By that I mean a balance of male and female, but with more of a female component; more storytelling; and looking at story-telling as a way to access news stories." Morning TV news, the most profitable and popular news offering, is positive news - news that deliberately seeks to start the day on an upbeat, news that people want to hear, because it's cheerful, or quirky, or hopeful, as much news isn't.
Is this what Lewis meant? Not wholly: he simply meant that the world was incomprehensible if the bulk of broadcast and newspaper news was taken as an adequate description of the world. It's incomprehensible because experience shows people in rich and settled countries that nothing is all bad, as most news is. Indeed, most material things are getting better, and have done for many decades.
The time when there was a consensus that news was the preserve of serious men who brought portentous and usually dire information to a mass market is over, though it is taking a long time to die. The market has decreed it for years: most people have simply ceased to be in thrall to the view that a grasp of the (bad) news is necessary for full citizenship. Journalism, bit by bit, is catching up, seeking to save what it can of the serious news agenda, to discover in which niches those who still want to get it reside and to determine if money can be made from them.
john.lloyd@ft.com
...
FT.com / By industry / Media & internet - Seriously good
posted by CMT, 10:03 da tarde
