The Power of Tragedy

Tragedy is medias biggest successor; it’s a captivator of audience. Media and the demand for 24/7 news, the causes and the consequences are the focus of Daya Kishan Thussu’s “Live TV and Bloodless Deaths: War, infotainment and 24/7 News” and Kieran Baker’s “Conflict and Control: The war in Afghanistan and 24-hour News Cycle.” They cover media’s ins and outs from “infotainment” to “The pressures of live reporting” and the direct relationships between business, tragedy and the quality of a news report.

Both writers take a different approach to the topic of 24/7 media, Thussu is more factual and political while Baker writes his personal experience as a journalist. These two articles go hand in hand and tie nicely together, complimenting their qualities and agreeing perspectives on the story. Thussu gives the facts about the story and explains it on a large over view making the situation clear to understand while Baker gives this captivating introduction, especially as an American he writes in a way that I can connect with him, “To me, the destruction of the World Trade Center seemed to rock the United States in almost biblical proportions – here was a country that appeared invincible, yet had taken an epic blow.” I have biases of course and it may be different in the eyes of a non-American.

             “Live TV and Bloodless Deaths: War, Infotainment and 24/7 News” exploits the direct relationship between the two and exposing the populations desire for drama. Thussu claims that media is just as much of a news report as it is entertainment. Thussu also writes, “presentation becomes as important as the content of a report”. For instance an attractive news anchor to a not so attractive news anchor – they say it all the time in architecture, “Poor craft over powers good concepts” which means if you have an ugly drawing, it’s hard to see past the flaws to analyze the real subject. Baker agrees with Thussu’s claim on infotainment, “ The growing demands and expectations of television news reminds me increasingly of how the film industry operates.” It’s easy to agree that the more entertaining the news, the more compelling it is to watch – unfortunate but true. It’s like watching a soap opera or real-life television, the ridiculousness and drama is entertaining, and for news, the fact that it’s a real life situation is what makes it even more dramatic then a television show.

            Because people desire drama and entertainment, it is clear that news viewing fluctuates with the media subject, particularly with war. I’m sure there’s psychology behind why people seek extreme tragedy; they (as do I) wouldn’t care to watch a little fender bender on the Main St. because it happens every other day. But war on the other hand is uncommon, like a diamond, it is expensive and rare. There’s also the good news that are equally as vital and I’m sure are equally as popular; events such as a technological break-through, a cure for cancer (if there was one) or a launch to the moon. But the rarity of something so significant is even more infrequent then war these days. Baker brings up the consequences of 24/7 news casting when you’re running out of tragic material, “ As the military campaign broadened so did the aspirations of television news executives, who were trying hard to maintain interest for the audience as the initial ratings declined.” Unfortunately I see that most of the world revolves around money and frankly, media, CNN, Fox, Times …etc. are businesses, they make money on the viewers and the more viewers they have the more money they make, so what happens when there’s no calamity to tell of?

This brings up the quality of the news that’s provided and the trueness of the source. In a previous study on the shooting at the Empire State Building that occurred just this month, I found that different news reports seemed to broadcast their own versions of the event. Nation Public Radio made the assailant seem like he started open firing at people on a crowded street, injuring nine people and killing one. While New York Times describes the shooter of having only one intentional victim and the other nine bystanders may have accidentally been shot by the officers at the scene. Neither NPR or NY Times are providing false information, they are simply choosing to omit and include particular pieces of the story to lead the audience to think of the event a certain way. They will stretch the truth if it’s found to be more lucrative for it is still a business. As Thussu wrote about media and its “tendency to move away from a public service news agenda…to a more market-led, tabloid version of news…emphasis on…entertainment.”