I'm not sure about you, but I seem to becoming more annoyed at the content of leading news each time I sit down to watch it or read it. In recent weeks there have been so many devastating tragedies that make me squirm at the reality, yet the newsworthy content surrounding these events seems to numb the pain and blind me from the seriousness of it. I mean if Charlie Sheen's rehab saga and what type of cake will be the royal wedding cake for good old Will and Kate (which is of course a McVite's biscuit cake dah) is documented as leading world news then the rest of this stuff in Japan, Libya and Christchurch can't be too bad, can it?
All of this is making me think this is a new form of propaganda.
Propaganda traditionally in my opinion is information, ideas, or rumours deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc.
This technique has worked on me for a long time now; ideas and selected information have been placed before me in newspapers and television to distil my fears of events happening in the wild world. Allowing me to rest easy knowing things aren't too bad if Paris Hilton or Lindsey Lohan are headlining news. I guess I could say I have been extremely ignorant, but I don't think I'm the only one that has been.
For some reason my ignorance has not been bliss in recent times. I don't know if it has been because I have grown bored of just believing what is in front of me and not questioning it or because of the extreme events happening one after another coinciding with the royal wedding saga (yawn) which are at two different ends of scale, making it very clear the media are selling us crap to ease our worries of the real world. I guess in a way it is very protective as the real world can be extremely overwhelming if consumed all at once.
If you think that all news content you see is relevant or even newsworthy I leave you with a list of ridiculous Charlie Sheen titles all newsworthy at the time of Christchurch and Japan:
Charlie Sheen Wants Mila Kunis to Be His Third "Goddess"
Hide Your... Everything: Charlie Sheen Has Arrived In NYC
The Boston Red Sox Need Charlie Sheen to Save Their Season
Charlie Sheen's Ferrari goes up for sale on eBay
Charlie Sheen Back on TV With Porn Stars, Murder and, um, Drew Carey
Denise Richards cheers up Charlie Sheen's daughters with balloons
Who knows what will happen with future news content, maybe Perez Hilton may surprise us and start broadcasting from the Middle East with something relevant?
Gemma Moore
OMD Brisbane
The AdNews NGen blog: Where's the real news?
18 April 2011