America through its Televised News
If anybody wants to get to the bottom of the societal and cultural differences between America and Tunisia, I have one advice... Compare the televised news.In this first post, I will share with you my views on the televised news in the US. In the next, I will draw from my experience with the news in Tunisia to emphasize certain aspect of the Tunisian common psyche.
I guess first in America we have to distinguish between local and national news. In general, the local news are affiliates of the big networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, etc..). Their main focus is what is happening in your city. They tend to focus on the practical direct aspects of the information (traffic, crime, local teams in your area). They compete/ differentiate on the immediate services, better weather forecasting tools, nicer choppers for live coverage of traffic, involvement in the community, and insights in the local political and sports scene.
The national news come in two shapes:
-The networks that squeeze in 30 minutes of daily news (plus weekly documentary and the off the cuff specials), and
-The new (not so new) platform, namely the 24-hour news channels (FoxNews, CNN, MSNBC etc).
Although the two types of news have some fundamental differences (mainly time allotments, and the fact that cable has more room for editorials and comments vs actual news), they both share some important characteristics namely sensationalism and short attention span. First one has to recognize that this entities (except PBS) are free enterprises, and that ultimately their goal is to make money in a very competitive environment driven by ratings. From that standpoint one can understand that they need to "chock" to keep viewers riveted to their screens. Mundane nice upbeat news don't go well with a "blaze" audience, and cannot compete for their attention and their spending dollars with other TV programming and other media . The gory, scary, graphic, inflaming news can attract people's attention. That takes me to the second point, which how fast the big story of today does not even make it to the news tomorrow. It's amazing when you watch the news here, you have the impression that the general public and the news in general have a huge case of Adult ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). The corruption scandal surrounding a congressman that was "Breaking News" material yesterday, is not even talked about today as this famous actress made a foul out herself when she was arrested by the police for drinking and driving. The war that last week was called the first salvo in WWIII is not even worth mentioning today!!
Finally two observations or trends:
- Americans tend to blindly believe their news and rarely question the motives and the source. They tend to develop viewing habits consumerate with their political, economical status and views. In other words, if you are conservative you will mostly watch FoxNews and you have more predispositions to believe what they you hear and see. The same applies to liberals and the rest of the middle road America.
- Less and less Americans are getting their news from TV (or printed media). Increasing numbers are getting their news from the internet and the blogsphere.
In conclusion, as in everything else, American news have a practical focus not matched anywhere else. Their main focus is how each piece of news will impact you, the viewer. Whether it's an election that will impact your taxes, a far flung war that will impact the price of the gas at the pump, the main focus how it will impact our lives here.
posted by Zarga @ 6:19 PM
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