2008 Woodie Awards
Anna Nicole death takes over media while Cholera just waits
Sara McIntosh
Issue date: 2/13/07 Section: Viewpoints
- Page 1 of 1
There are times in life where I abhor being a journalist. This previous week is one of those bleak and dreadful moments that I cannot help but feel shame, disgust, and utter hatred with the role of media in our present-day society. Now that I have your interest and utmost attention, Anna Nicole Smith died and the whole world was watching.
Here comes the issue that no one seems to hear or know about thanks to our infotainment-based media conglomerations: there are people dying of Cholera in Africa all because war and unrest leaves them to drink infected water. Like most diseases of this caliber, the most unfortunate victims are the innocent infants and children who are completely incapable of doing anything to save themselves from taking their death into their body each time they are given a drink by their mother.
So, what is the big deal? How many of you actually saw this on a news outlet somewhere that this is a real issue in the Congo, Somalia and Zimbabwe? I'd be willing to bet that much of your news, from whatever media outlet you choose to receive it from, may have omitted this story all together due to the need for the world to focus on an embarrassment to the human race and whatever repercussions may follow Smith's unfortunate demise in Florida.
The concept of news, in a most primitive and easy to comprehend definition, is to inform people of what is truly taking place in a market that appeals to them most. Thus, local news tends to devote much of the agenda to local issues, even if it does mean certain demographics of people are always displayed as witnesses to certain crimes or events (think of an incoherent slack-jawed rambler that saw everything but doesn't speak well enough to be understood). Consumers of the world-wide media conglomerations expect to see news that is taking on throughout the world with as little bias as possible.
Now, you readers of this paper, are informed that there are people dying in areas of an "oldie but goodie" disease that has not been as notable in "developed countries" since 1923, according to Wikipedia. You have an obligation to demand that people throughout the world have a voice that is heard by finding these stories in the obscure and hidden realms of the media world, so that, in essence, people will learn of the fate of these suffering people and finally do something about it instead of focusing on the tumultuous life and death of another trite Playboy graduate.
Here comes the issue that no one seems to hear or know about thanks to our infotainment-based media conglomerations: there are people dying of Cholera in Africa all because war and unrest leaves them to drink infected water. Like most diseases of this caliber, the most unfortunate victims are the innocent infants and children who are completely incapable of doing anything to save themselves from taking their death into their body each time they are given a drink by their mother.
So, what is the big deal? How many of you actually saw this on a news outlet somewhere that this is a real issue in the Congo, Somalia and Zimbabwe? I'd be willing to bet that much of your news, from whatever media outlet you choose to receive it from, may have omitted this story all together due to the need for the world to focus on an embarrassment to the human race and whatever repercussions may follow Smith's unfortunate demise in Florida.
The concept of news, in a most primitive and easy to comprehend definition, is to inform people of what is truly taking place in a market that appeals to them most. Thus, local news tends to devote much of the agenda to local issues, even if it does mean certain demographics of people are always displayed as witnesses to certain crimes or events (think of an incoherent slack-jawed rambler that saw everything but doesn't speak well enough to be understood). Consumers of the world-wide media conglomerations expect to see news that is taking on throughout the world with as little bias as possible.
Now, you readers of this paper, are informed that there are people dying in areas of an "oldie but goodie" disease that has not been as notable in "developed countries" since 1923, according to Wikipedia. You have an obligation to demand that people throughout the world have a voice that is heard by finding these stories in the obscure and hidden realms of the media world, so that, in essence, people will learn of the fate of these suffering people and finally do something about it instead of focusing on the tumultuous life and death of another trite Playboy graduate.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Bessie Cherry
posted 2/14/07 @ 11:42 AM CST
I'll admit I was a pretty big fan of Anna Nicole Smith and I'm following the story...Smith's death is a tragedy; but much more tragic than her's was Jessica Lunsford's, the little girl who fell victim to a child predator and was buried alive right here in the US of A. (Continued…)
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