A documentary that opened my eyes!!!

I know that I have been hibernating in oblivion for a long long time but this particular documentary has woken me up from my slumber. The documentary was on a channel called PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) which is state funded. Each state in the US has its own PBS channel. I really admire this channel because it deals with issues affecting the country and the world and not just local news (which are quite limited). The channel also airs interesting documentaries and reruns of classic British comedies.

Anyway, let’s come back to the documentary that inspired me to write again (at least this piece). The topic was the changing face of news reporting and journalism. The article segued from how newspapers were fast losing their readership to television and online resources like news websites and blogs and to how the various newspaper corporations were restructuring their organizations to meet with the demands of their business. The emphasis, however, was on how news reporting had metamorphosed from investigative journalism and what the news reporters and journalists wanted to share to the very same corporations pandering to the ‘tastes’ of people. Thus in the old days, CBS ’60 minutes’ would expose something or someone in the political or corporate world while now the channels are busy catching sexual predators or dealing with the lives of moms and students who work in striptease bars to earn some extra money. Basically they think that people like money and sleaze and that is what they are showing. In a public poll asking which program they watched to get their news, the winner was ‘The Daily Show’ hosted by Jon Stewart. The funny thing is that it is aired on ‘Comedy Central’ and actually makes fun of the latest happenings. The producers themselves were a bit disappointed to know that people were relying on their program for their daily dose of news.

Another thing that the documentary dealt with was the way the young generation (people in the age group 20-30) was receiving their news. Most of the people in this age group receive news through the internet. This is hardly surprising since they spend most of their time online and this actually the fastest and more convenient way to get the latest news. This is also a generation with short attention spans. Thus the news is limited to 20 sentences and in fact they prefer news with a short video clip. I too prefer this medium because: 1) I don’t get to watch a lot of TV 2) If you watch a news channel a couple of hours after a particular news has been broken, you wouldn’t understand what they are talking about since they would be talking about the latest developments without actually repeating the original news and 3) Buffalo doesn’t have a newspaper to boast about.

Personally, I’m a big fan of newspapers. Nothing can replace the sensations of the smell and touch of a fresh newspaper. I used to read almost an entire newspaper (and sometimes two) on a daily basis when I was in India. Unfortunately, life in the US is simply too busy to enjoy the simple pleasures of reading newspapers and novels. I do occasionally get to read the New York Times, thanks to the Readership program at our university. I was surprised to know through the documentary that reputed newspapers like the one I mentioned before, The Washington Post and The Chicago Tribune have a turnover of close to a billion dollars a year with the profits being somewhere close to 200 million dollars. That is a lot of moolah!!!

The documentary also touched upon the growing influence of blogs as a source of news and communication. It showed a couple of instances where blogs, not news agencies, had helped in exposing scams. One was the misleading reporting by Dan Rather of ’60 minutes’ about criticisms of George Bush’s service in the US National Guards during the 70s which came to be known as ‘Rathergate’. The other was how a minister in Florida had homosexual relations with his subordinates (I am in no way against homosexuality)

I am an avid blog reader and get a lot of news from other blogs. I believe that blogs are doing great community service by shelling out information and keeping local events alive. However, I have to agree with one of the interviewees that in the current scenario, blogs cannot replace mainstream news media. I think that many blog writers are good reporters but they hardly contribute anything to journalism (I hope people realize the difference between the two).

The documentary then went on to show how the various newspaper organizations restructured themselves but its not interesting enough to be mentioned here. I think I have written quite a bit and should stop, keeping in mind the short attention spans of most readers. Will this piece inspire me to write more often? Only time will tell.