Feeding Our Need
Media help us understand our world
by Todd Huffman, M.D.
Since the early days of television, Americans have relied on the national networks to provide them with 30 minutes of evening news, telling the day laborer all the marvelous and terrible things they missed that happened last night and today all over this world.
For those with the time, the morning newspaper has always been invaluable, and before television its news was exclusive. But since the advent of television its value has come more from its in-depth analysis of the stories already caught on the television news last evening.
However, as we are daily reminded, newspaper readership is sadly on the decline in America. In this age of frenetic mornings leading off overlong workdays sandwiched by lengthy drive times and followed by overbooked evenings, fewer of us have time to read the instructions on our microwaveable meals, let alone the newspaper.
In this age of new media, we want our information the same as we want our food: fast, and already prepared for our quick consumption.
For more and more of us, television news is the only way we get news, assuming we get any at all. Sure, some of us find our fill of news by browsing through the ubiquitous Internet news and opinion sites. But more likely is that if we’re logging on, we’re only just catching up with our cyber-societies of like-minded folk joined in manic Internet blab accomplishing little more than reinforcing each other’s indignation.
With such an awesome responsibility as often the sole harbinger of news good and bad, we should expect much from our television media. Instead, we get the titillation of the trivial.
We get breathless blondes reporting on missing blondes. We get entirely uncritical fascination with unreal celebrities. We get insipid “conversations” between shouting talking heads.
And worst of all, we get utterly spineless reporting with no edge, no slash and bite, no grabbing on and not letting go.
Television news no longer provides genuine news about the world. Instead it mostly settles for brief and superficial words and images. It serves only to draw in the highest viewership to generate the highest advertising dollar for the most shareholder profit. And it does so by competing in the business of hype and fear.
Truthfulness and accuracy have little pull at all anymore; only the most fantastical, the most horrible, and the most simplified are served up for public consumption. And we eat it, and eat it greedily, until we’ve become obese in mind and scared in spirit.
There’s so much newsworthy going on in this vast and wonderful world of ours every day. Good news and bad pours forth day after day, much of it trite and dull and boring, but so much more so necessary and fascinating that we require computers and newspapers, radios and televisions to grab at it all for bits and pieces for which to keep in hopes of one day understanding some part of how the larger world works.
So when broadcast media, the only source of news for many of us, is more interested in pursuing audience share and turning a profit, it fails in its basic journalistic responsibilities to serve as witness to injustice and as watchdog over the powerful, and we’re all the poorer for it.
When television “journalists” want always to pitch a fight between polarized views rather than convening public discussions to find serious answers, we’re all the poorer for it.
When television news substitutes emotion for fact, feel-good human interest stories for hard-nosed reporting, and sound bites for political discourse, we’re all the poorer for it.
Which is why we need, and will always need newspapers. Their death will be the death of democracy. It won’t be obvious at first, for there’ll be no papers in which to print the obituary.
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Todd Huffman, M.D., is a Eugene pediatrician.
A Note From the Publisher
Dear Readers,
The last two years have been some of the hardest in Eugene Weekly’s 43 years. There were moments when keeping the paper alive felt uncertain. And yet, here we are — still publishing, still investigating, still showing up every week.
That’s because of you!
Not just because of financial support (though that matters enormously), but because of the emails, notes, conversations, encouragement and ideas you shared along the way. You reminded us why this paper exists and who it’s for.
Listening to readers has always been at the heart of Eugene Weekly. This year, that meant launching our popular weekly Activist Alert column, after many of you told us there was no single, reliable place to find information about rallies, meetings and ways to get involved. You asked. We responded.
We’ve also continued to deepen the coverage that sets Eugene Weekly apart, including our in-depth reporting on local real estate development through Bricks & Mortar — digging into what’s being built, who’s behind it and how those decisions shape our community.
And, of course, we’ve continued to bring you the stories and features many of you depend on: investigations and local government reporting, arts and culture coverage, sudoku and crossword puzzles, Savage Love, and our extensive community events calendar. We feature award-winning stories by University of Oregon student reporters getting real world journalism experience. All free. In print and online.
None of this happens by accident. It happens because readers step up and say: this matters.
As we head into a new year, please consider supporting Eugene Weekly if you’re able. Every dollar helps keep us digging, questioning, celebrating — and yes, occasionally annoying exactly the right people. We consider that a public service.
Thank you for standing with us!
Publisher
Eugene Weekly
P.S. If you’d like to talk about supporting EW, I’d love to hear from you!
jody@eugeneweekly.com
(541) 484-0519