Television and Sensationalism
Most people today get their news fro
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Most people today get their news from television, a fact which is both understandable and alarming. It is understandable because people are busier than ever before and want their news in shorter bursts. It is alarming because this necessarily means a less informed public, particularly given the cursory way television treats most news and the way the sensational is featured over everything else. Of course, the sensational was always a staple in the newspaper business as well, but there are many who believe that there is a difference because television as a medium is more damaging than any other. The argument that television is inherently harmful has been waged for some time, and criticism of television as a superficial medium has also been offered for some time. Today, though, there is more feeling than ever that television is cheapening the news-gathering potential of the medium and that the audience is allowing this to happen and even encouraging it by giving high ratings to so-called trash television--tabloid news programs, sensationalistic talk programs, and the antics of supposed investigative reporters and social analysts like Geraldo Rivera.Indeed, Geraldo has become something of a symbol of all that is wrong with television even though he did not start this type of show, nor is he even the most blatant purveyor of trash television. What he is is one of the most self-promoting of the proponents of tabloid television, and his blatant propagandizing
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alism." [Wallace is not comfortable with the idolatry of Rivera, perhaps further evidence that Rivera has not achieved much acceptance in news circles.] Yet, a tactic seen as effective and even necessary on 60 Minutes may be seen quite differently when every local news reporter is doing it. Another reason why such a tactic has been more readily accepted from the 60 Minutes news people as opposed to Geraldo is that they have long been more accepted for themselves than has Geraldo, who in spite of his popularity has been seen as more of a personality than a journalist because of the way he injects himself into his stories and promotes himself along with whatever issue he is addressing. Perhaps most if not every television journalist does the same thing, but Geraldo is somehow more blatant about it.
The trend toward tabloid television has escalated within the last five years, and it has taken place on three fronts. In prime time, there have been a number of successful television shows using recreations of crimes and other events, and these shows tend more toward entertainment than news in the usual sense. What they have done, however, is to make certain practices more acceptable to the public so that shows more easily identifi
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Some common words found in the essay are:
TABLOID TELEVISION, Downey Jr, Phil Donahue, Geraldo Rivera, Mike Wallace, TV Rivera, Roy Innis, , Jessie Raphael, Washington Post, tabloid television, geraldo rivera, television critics, talk hosts, morton downey jr, downey jr, local television, 60 minutes, trash tv, morton downey, distinction entertainment, deals sex sensitive, november 14 1988, sex sensitive manner, hosts phil donahue,
Approximate Word count = 4327
Approximate Pages = 17 (250 words per page)
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