# 284: News
Story behind the Passage
When watching the news today, I realized that I am not watching it attentively anymore as I had once used to. Now, this one sentence already poses a lot of miracles, right? What is “news,” what does “attentive” actually mean, and when was this somewhat distant past when things were different?
Good questions…
The only thing I can tell for sure is that I am not that much into the details anymore. I am sure they, i.e., news stations, still provide many details but somehow I am not listening that well anymore. That is what I mean by attentive. And the reason for this, I think, is that you nowadays know that what is news on TV right now might already be old online or it will become old in the blink of any eye. So, therefore you tell yourself: “Well, it does not matter if I get this correctly because it will have changed next time I ask myself any questions about it.”
I wonder if this is not dangerous?
I mean, “dangerous” is a big word and actually not the right one to use here. Still, television news still has an effect on the nation. The question is: Which one? I know so many people nowadays who do not own a television set anymore. Other people have one but they hardly ever watch “real” television anymore, at least they do not watch the news. They watch Netflix and that kind of stuff. So, what I am saying is that with the vast range of options — as applies to life in general — there is not one “TV” anymore.
The question remains, is there one news?
With breaking news, this seems to be easy. Some really big disaster happens and you see the same footage all over he world in the major channels. But only in the major channels, right? All the other channels that do not care about news at all are not touched by this. Hence, the viewers do not hear about it either. Now comes the question whether or not this matters? Why does it matter to not hear about news if there are no real news anymore anyways? Nobody really has the right to define news as news because of some universal set of priorities. This is because the priorities always depend on the perspective and in the case of a nation, this perspective is tied to whatever is relevant to the country.
What is interesting is that I wrote down “Differences between countries” above the passage in the book with the addition “CRIT.” This is my abbreviation for “criticism” meaning that I meant to criticize the fact that this aspect is not paid attention to. It might have been for some paper I wrote about this or it was just in general for me to remember this aspect. The funny thing is, even though this study is really old by now, this aspect is still relevant. Yes, news is global and the spread of online media as competition to traditional TV news is global as well. Still, there are huge differences between the different media systems across countries.
I wonder if other people, other viewers, are having a similar experience as myself when it comes to paying attention to the details.
Is this an effect of Covid?
Is it age-related and my brain simply cannot suck up that much info anymore?
Am I on my way to becoming a pessimist?
My Learnings
“Television news presents interpretations with great confidence, almost as if they were embedded in the events themselves and therefore not open to question.” This sentence must be read in conjunction with what is written on the previous page, i.e., the finding that TV news is authoritative. Here is how the authors define this term basedon Weaver:
“There is hardly an aspect of the scripting, casting, and staging of a television news program that is not designed to convey an impression of authority and omniscience. This can be seen most strikingly in the role of the anchorman — Walter Cronkite is the exemplar — who is positively god-like: he summons forth men, events, and images at will; he speaks in tones of utter certainty; he is the person with whom all things begin and end.” (Weaver qtd. in Iyengar and Kinder 126)
The keywords here are “god-like” and omniscient for me. If you link this to the aspect of interpretation above, it becomes clear how news not only implicitly defines what matters but how it matters as well. And that indeed has an impact on the audience, if this audience is national and thus constitutes what experts refer to as “public opinion.” What they have opinions about is based on what they watch on the news. If they do watch it, there is a strong connection. If they do not watch it anymore, this connection is weaker. This might be a good thing, you can argue, because there is media pluralism and therefore also more pluralistic thinking.
Is there really?
Just imagine for second that there are no TV news anymore at some point. We all get our info about the world via the different social media we are already using. This will be extremely user-friendly, of course, because you only get what you are interested in anyways, all tailor-made. And you get it with your favorite moderators (“god-like”) too. This is exactly what I am afraid of. I am not even talking about fake news, lack of quality assurance, even propaganda, etc. What I am simply worried about is that there is no global agenda anymore — not even a glimpse of it.
Yes, agenda setting by the global media might twist and turn public opinion and it might even turn pseudo-events into real events in the eyes of the audience. Still, if I think of TV news as the agenda of a CEO meeting, the selective nature of the list and the prioritization allows one to focus on some things that did already go through a somewhat established selection process before. So, there are interests in the room, no doubt, but even the selection process states something about these interests. The same applies to global political news. If all TV stations around the globe agree that some disaster in Africa or Asia needs to be broadcasted as breaking news — then this turns this event into an issue of global importance that deserves attention.
I know that I might not be satisfying anyone who reads this article with the expectation to find a clear “yes” or “no” to the question of “shall I watch TV news or not?” (By the way, I hardly ever give any cleay ‘you should…’ answers on this blog, as you might have learned already.) You know what: You will actually get a clear stance from me now, even if it might not appear that clear above. I am in favor of TV news because I do think it still matters to a degree that nobody can afford to miss entirely. I do see the extreme dangers that come along with it for people who have no background knowledge. But that is the strength of getting interpretation which is inherently linked to TV news, as the authors also explain. This interpretation ensures that at least some context is provided.
That is all that matters to me — in writing, life, and work (actually, they are all the same…). For me, there is always a global perspective behind everything I look at. I am aware that might come across as a huge overstatement and that nobody can really live up to this, even if he/she has traveled the world and lived in many places. We are all somewhat limited by the here and now as well, meaning that our local surrounings and our present living situation determine how we look at things and how we filter incoming information. Still, taking a global perspective by always asking how the small details of some piece of news relate to global politics and even global human problems is something that the news can trigger.
There is one tiny addition that needs to be made, however. Remember that this study was done in the U.S. Everyone living in the U.S. knows how television there is not that global after all. That actually goes back to other studies in media studies which show how the size of a country is related to the affinity to broadcast more or less news about other countries. The U.S. is huge and the bigger a nation, the less international orientation you will find. In other words, the country with the biggest diversity can end up as the most homogenous and protectorate when it comes to TV news. Whether this still holds true today, I do not know. My knowledge on all this is more than ten years old.
What will not get old, however, is the longing to aim for the bigger picture.
We all have this seed inside that wants to see beyond the obvious.
You just need to watch closely.
Reflection Questions
1) Do you watch TV news? Why/not?
2) How relevant is learning about global events for you personally? Do you care?
3) Was there ever a day in your life when you watched TV and the news you learned about took your breath away? Which event was it about?