August 2009 Archives

                There are times when our criticizing of the news' tendencies towards sensationalism is akin to a heroin addict criticizing his dealer's tendencies towards pushing illegal substances.  I am as guilty as the next person, and this knowledge was cemented into my mind when I listened to the audio clip describing worthy news.  Obviously, if there is a one-person car crash, I don't necessarily want the news to spend ten minutes on that coverage, especially, and this is the sad, but honest truth of human nature, if I don't know the person involved.  Now, if someone "important" is involved in the crash... We who rally for equal news coverage are somewhat silenced by the fact that there is a distinguishing line between who matters and who doesn't.  Those who don't matter probably won't make the news.  An elderly lady's house is robbed?  It may make the news, depending on the night.  A senator's house is robbed.  That's news.  A clone of a senator is baking a pie...

Stop Talking and Tell Us Something

"5.  Don't waste so much time with pretentious chit-chat between your anchors" (Byron, What You Can Do to Make TV News Better).

            Out of all the advice given in this particular article, number five was the gem that made me think, "Thank-you, Byron" and say a fervent prayer that the wisdom would be heeded to whatever news god happened to be tuning in at the moment.  How many times do we have to watch anchors make painful conversation amongst themselves?  I personally don't care if the anchors are having fun at work or not, just as I suppose the anchors are unconcerned with whether or not I'm enjoying myself at my job.  In fact, such painful talk as "George, aren't you going to do anything about that rain?" followed by, "Why, yes I am, Sally.  I'm going to buy a new umbrella" (amused chuckles from both anchors) does nothing for my news enthusiasm.  It is conversations like the aforementioned that undoubtedly led Byron to state that anchors were actors more than journalists.  Of course, more often than not, "acting" is a generous term for what we see on the screen.  The most despicable part of all of this is that the little show of camaraderie between anchors takes up time for actual news.  If the newsrooms really want to "give the people what they want," then they need to have anchors talk to the viewers, not each other.   

"Close reading essays about portions of a work should demonstrate how the passage is connected to the rest of the work" (Roberts 54).

Initially, this passage did not provoke an overly grateful response from me.   However, after I reflected on some of the things I've read in the past, I realized that this is actually great advice for writing a paper.  How many times has each of us been reading a book, and, regardless of whether we were enjoying the piece or not, come across a passage that seemed to make absolutely no sense.  We have been plucked from our narrative walk, tripped by this stumbling block of misplaced text.  "Why is that there?" we might ask ourselves, and by "there" we do not mean between those specific chapters or paragraphs, but in the book at all.  It's simple to shrug and just read on, hoping your professor was just as flummoxed about the passage as you were. (This is generally a vain hope.  If a passage earns a collective blank-stare response from the class, that's practically a guarantee it will be discussed.) 

Even if it is impossible to avoid that obscure bit of text in a discussion, that's still not incentive to actually write about it in a close reading assignment.  After all, this seemingly random section seems completely disconnected from the rest of the work.  Perhaps we could just assume that when the author wrote that particular part, he/she was in the midst of one of those nervous breakdowns writers are so fond of having.  But, really, the mere fact this passage seems disconnected is a perfect reason to try to connect it to everything else.  Chances are, one could even unlock another part of the theme by studying this specific portion of text.  Writers generally have a reason for each part of their story, and finding a reason for particularly confusing segments can actually provide an interesting topic for a paper.