Entry #9 Media Synthesize

It’s all around us- tons of news and a galaxy of information that seems to never stop.

Lets start with news! In the good old days there were three television networks (ABC, NBC, & CBS) that informed the public of news stories.

News was usually for an hour in the evenings and the stories started with national, local, weather and sports.

Most stories lasted thirty-seconds to minute- rarely did a story last a few minutes…and that is how news was presented a few decades ago…

Sometime in the 90’s four major stories changed the way news was presented- O.J. Simpson chase and trial, the Gulf War, Rodney King and the Los Angeles Riots. CNN was reporting news 24/7, but these stories would be told and analyzed over and over again. Soon, the three major networks followed along with non-stop news whenever a major news item came along.

Today, it seems like every news story, good or bad, is picked apart, analyzed and scrutinized. I think we as the public, can blame ourselves for wanting the shared information.

This week in San Bernardino, CA, we had a shooting from a couple that killed and injured multiple people. As the public we wanted to know every, who-what-when-where and why. And within a few days the media was allowed to enter the house that the couple lived in. The manager had placed their items in some presentable way for the media to film and share with their viewers. For me- it seems like this seems to be the norm- to get to every level of detail, regardless if its level of news worthiness.

I think its great to be aware of world wide events, but for me I can not fathom how some will sit for hours or even days glued to a news feed sucking it all in. Three days later the same old-same old of what happened in a Southern California neighbor hood plays on- and as we see over and over again, another BIG news story is just around the corner.