As an avid news reader and an editor of the student newspaper, I will often read online news sites in between classes or before starting my homework for the night. My homepage is CNN and I visit a few other sites to get a broader range of current events. In recent trends, however, the higher topics of interest and lead stories have dramatically shifted from updates on the war and other key (inter)national issues to “shocking” scandals involving politicians and celebrities.
In times of war, and especially since September 11, the reporting focuses on the negotiations and violence abroad and the impact on those here at home. For countless days in a row, the leading news story was about a car bomb with a casualty count or the steep increase in gas prices, with a few natural disasters now and then. There were days when reading the news was like living through the movie Groundhog Day, with the same stories posted over and over. It became old news pretty quickly, and the more it was reported on, the more apathetic I became. It wasn’t that I didn’t care about the issues at-hand and the lives being lost, but when all you hear about on a daily basis is violence and how it is affecting our economy, the news is just very depressing. As the war draws on and a definitive end is not in sight, there is reduced support and more inquiries about why we are even there—and being constantly reminded of the struggle doesn’t help.
So is there a solution to this depression and dwindling support? Judging by my homepage and other sources of current events, the answer is simple—give people more information about irresponsible celebrities and corrupt politicians. The plan works by diverting attention away from the debacle and peaking interest elsewhere with juicy gossip. Does this mean that there have been more scandals and superstar screw-ups lately? Not necessarily, but these are just making headlines more often now—or it could be because of the current administration and the child stars in need of parental support. Either way, in order to keep readership up and adjust to the “times,” media sources have started paying too much attention to the Britney’s and Lindsay’s.
Just last week, the featured story on one site was a full update on Britney Spears’ custody battle, giving details on her party habits, while a story about the shooting on the Delaware State University campus remained low on the list until the next day. By continually reading stories about the ignorance of the rich and famous, we are only sustaining their behaviors by satisfying their need to be in the spotlight. But when it comes down to reading about these repetitive stupid actions versus unnecessary fighting and deaths in a losing battle, what does the majority of the country prefer? Visit a news site and find out for yourself.
