On Sep 10, 2004, at 4:22 PM, Robert Seeberger wrote:
Alberto Monteiro wrote:
Warren Ockrassa wrote:
Same kind of deal as "Queequeg Airlines flight 402 crashed on
departure from East Selivinlandia this morning, killing all 500
people aboard, including two Americans."
Oh. Well. That makes it all relevant, now doesn't it?
When brazilian newspapers were telling the attack of 2001-09-11,
they listed all brazilians [7 or so, IIRC] that were killed. Does
it suggest that they thought that those few brazilians were more
important than all the other victims, or that newspapers want to
bring each tragedy closer to the readers?
I agree with Alberto.
Stories like that *do* bring it closer to home and remind one why one
should care.
Warren's take on this strikes me as being overly cynical, though both
could be true in some respects in certain situations.
I think the problem is that "news" outlets think that they have to "make
it local" for viewers to care. I think we're a pretty unusual group in
that we've had several reports here of folks watching the Olympics and
getting other news from networks from countries other than their own.
Frex, the only way I got to see *any* of the Olympic Tae Kwon Do
competition was by watching it on a Mexican station when my family was
in San Diego last month.
Alberto and Warren are both right: it is a cynical ploy by "news"
outlets to drive up ratings, but the justification that it makes it
closer to the viewers is also true.
As no less a media-critic luminary than Nick Arnett often points out,
TV networks often explain that they're "just showing what the public
wants" without bothering to understand that what they show isn't *all*
that the public might want, if they were offered a broader menu.
Dave
Liberal Rubbish Maru
_______________________________________________
http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
