Frontline

The multi-part series, "News War" done by Frontline was very interesting because it talked about all the rising issues that news and journalism is facing both now and in the near future. I found all the segments to be very interesting and a lot of the information actually somewhat sad and a little disturbing.

Section 17 started off my astonishment. I felt that this segment of the series proved to be the most pertinent at the moment. Network News Then and Now. The title says it all. News have changed dramatically over the last few decades and seems to continue to make a downward spiral. In this segment the reporters talk about how the news subjects that are appearing on prime time news have become extremely diverse, and not necessarily in a good way. For example, news has become more about the entertainment value rather then being about what people need to know or hear about. New stations are all about giving people what they want, which in this news segment they say may be the biggest tragedy of American journalism. In this segment they also talk about how networks started making money, and now it has become all about that. News stations wanting to make money didn't necessarily shock me, however how the news stations are trying to go about it, did. I think that news is about important events that go one everyday, and things such as celebrities babies and who is marrying who is pertinent to our everyday life. Why have we become so obsessed over drama and not what is really important?

The second section that I thought was quite interesting was section 18, talking about info snacking. The reason I thought this section was very interesting is because I felt it was so true to so many young, savvy people. I honestly have felt like 60 minutes is sort of targeted towards an older crowd, and not that young people don't watch it, it just seems to be geared that way. However, recently they seem to be doing stories that are out of their normal news bubble. For example, celebrity specials and things of that nature. I find it interesting that they are pairing up with such a popular online news site such as Yahoo, because this website seems so geared towards young people. It wouldn't surprise me that the idea of info snacking on websites such as Yahoo is bringing in the money for news stations.

The third segment that I looked at was chapter 19: The New Universe of Online Media. Again, I think that this segment is so appropriate to my generation. I think that online news is going to become the main source for news around the world. In the Frontline video they stated multiple times that there are not many people from the ages of 20-30 that pick up newspapers, all of their news information is all online. I think that is very interesting considering the fact that 20-22 years old or even higher may still be in school, which I think now a days has a lot to do with the types of news sources that people are affected by. For example, in this journalism class we were required to create a blog, which in some people's views is a form of journalism, and who makes us journalists? With this wave of online media, it hard to say what is news, what is credible, and who should we believe. I think that's what is the most shocking, is that anyone can post anything on the Internet and pose as being credible, or pose as being something that they aren't. Just like they talk about in this segment, anyone these days with a laptop or cell phone is now a journalist. In the near future..or even now..what is going to happen to traditional journalism.