The Biggest Tragedy in Modern-day Journalism

In the film we watched in class on Wednesday, one of the editors for a newspaper made the comment that now journalism gives "[the public what it wants, not necessarily what it needs,]" and deemed this the biggest tragedy in modern-day journalism.

While the news does provide information that we need to know, such as information on the current financial crisis, it is hard to ignore the fact that newspapers have a big motivation to sell their papers. They need circulation, and they need revenue from advertisers. In order to get people to read the papers, unfortunately, a lot of attention is given to the questions of what interests people, and what will sell.

I remember on the day that Heath Ledger died, I had gone to the Yahoo! website to check my email. On my homepage there was a big picture of Ledger and an article about his death, and somewhere on the same page was a feeble picture containing a tragedy that had occured to many people in a country in the middle east.

It hit me then that most people in the United States would be more concerned about this one celebrity's death, than the terrible death of many, despite the fact that those who had died were not Americans. I, myself, am a prime example of these people with misplaced, or exaggerated concerns. I confess that I don't remember many details about the events of this tragedy, or even the country in which it took place.

The reason I say these things is to point out that becuase of the newspaper's need to earn money and satisfy the public's wants, certain important events are being overshadowed by others that are made out to be extremely significant, when in reality, there are bigger things happening in the world.