At the recent White House Correspondent’s Dinner President Obama mildly referenced the media’s inability to resist giving extreme candidates daily exposure and expressed his appreciation for those who have continued the struggle to cover the issues.
The problem is that when a critical mass of 24/7 cable outlets give daily exposure to outrageous attacks and name-calling traditional journalists often end up getting dragged into the circus. They seem to fear looking like they are missing something and that if they don’t participate in the drama they will lose their audience the next day.
The digital media world has created such an appetite for fast-paced emotional news that even traditional journalists can feel forced to keep looking for the next attention-grabber. This can lead to beginning every newscast with shouting the words “breaking news,” or promising “new developments” in a story where there are none, or promoting an “exclusive” interview where nothing important is learned. And then rapid-fire anchors combined with fast-paced editing help reinforce the emotion.
Each day it can seem that more and more news outlets are moving away from facts-based reporting and more toward fast-paced entertainment. For many it can feel like it’s much more than just making information more interesting. Indeed, the new media world seems to be producing an audience that is more attracted to the drama of the moment than mind-expanding information?
The only answer I can see for society is more media literacy education. This can take place in schools, PTA’s, professional associations, civic groups, nonprofit organizations, the media itself, etc. Apparently digital media has the power to massage us into preferring emotional experiences over educational ones. And if that’s the case it’s hard to fix a problem that much of the general public doesn’t even recognize.
Larry D. Lauer 
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