Around the Clock

One of the best things about living in modern America as opposed to twenty years ago is our access to information. We can now find out almost any piece of info we need at a moments notice. On top of that, we now have access to almost infinite amounts of news stories on a given day. Twenty years ago our access to information (other than the library or encyclopedia) was limited to major newspapers, ABC, NBC, and CBS news.'

Now, of course, we have the Internet and its myriad of information at our fingertips. We have online publications, blogs, news sites, and the like. The ease and lower cost of producing an in-hand publication has also allowed more information to flow more freely. And of course we have several 24-hour news networks. We have much more information today than people had access to only 20 years ago.

But more information does not mean better information.

Last week there was much going on in the news. There was the Iraq War policy debate, the happenings on the ground there, the growing conflict with Iran, President Bush's proposed budget, and a host of other happenings.

Two of these "other happenings" were interesting, but far from important or what I would deem "newsworthy": the sudden death of a celebrity and an attempted murder by someone from an extremely well-respected profession.

At the end of each week the Pew Research Center puts out a report on how much attention the news media paid to each story. They also break it down by medium. Overall, here is how the media did:Of all the happenings last week I strongly doubt that the death of Anna Nicole Smith was the third most significant or important thing that happened. At least it can be said that, according to the media, something was more important than these two tabloid stories. That is saying quite a bit in this era dominated by infotainment.

This week did have an infotainment champion:In their effort to hold Joe American's attention, CNN, MSNBC, and FoxNews turned to the tabloid stories. They apparently believe that, despite the reality that those who spend their tv time watching the all-news channels are typically more engaged in world affairs and tend to be more educated, even those people are more likely to pay attention if the stories are entertainment, not information.

There was one medium that managed to avoid the tabloidization of the news (for the most part):I suppose this is a commentary on American society, since it is widely accepted that newspapers are a dying medium. It is even speculated that in the next 10-20 years we may not even see a paper copy of the New York Times. If newspapers hold the line and refuse to enter the arena of infotainment, they may well become extinct. Even if they do give in, they might not survive. It is a digital era and an entertainment era. Those of us who care more about policy and the future of our great country may well find ourselves in the minority, as the creeping infotainment threatens to taint Americans' understanding of what is "important".