http://www.npr.org/tablet/#story/?storyId=134525412&ps=cprs
I heard this story on the radio this morning and it made me think of Postman's analysis of tv as entertainment. An NPR exec was harangued last week because of hidden camera footage. After careful analysis of the full video enounter, NPR has a lot to say about how the video was edited to make for great entertainment that cost someone very dearly, even though he probably wasn't half as bad as this "journalist" made him out to be on his expose blog.
I think there are some grains of truth to Postman's article on the medium of tv and entertainment. We have probably seen a few too many of these "stories" breaking on the Internet. Probably because they make for excellent entertainment and the power of the web makes it easy for anyone to create this type of video. Many news blogs are mere reproduction of the news shows of the past, probably because people don't want to read blabber any more than they want to watch it.
One final note: I think we are still buying snake oil, tv may be free enterprise, but there isn't that much truth in advertising. Just ask someone who bought one of those kitchen gadgets the frumpy elderly red head sells on informercials...
No comments:
Post a Comment