Who decides what stories news sources focus on? Is it the media or is it the public who decides? Or perhaps both?
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Are Charlie Sheen’s rants that fascinating that we must watch them around the clock for days on end? Is Kate Middleton’s royal wedding dress so captivating that we must listen to debates and speculation over what designer is designing it and what it might look like, day after day? And do we need to hear the explicit details of the Northwestern University Professor’s after hours sex demonstration?
I’m all for a variety of news stories, but it’s obvious that we, as Americans, are getting less interested in what’s important and more obsessed with what is not. Charlie Sheen can drum up 1 million Twitter followers in 24 hours – not because he is an amazing person – but just because he is a train wreck people are fascinated to watch. Young, soldiers die in the war every day, or are gravely injured, but the media barely covers that. Where are the stories about these brave men and women and their families? It seems as though they are forgotten. Aren’t they more worthy of a feature story than a privileged, delusional drug-addict who is an actor only because his father is an actor?
Where are the stories about every day people who do great things? Where are the Americans who want to know more about global warming, geography, travel, alternative health care, outstanding citizens and other important issues?
So who does decide what the stories will be in the headline news? We all do. And until we decide we don’t want to focus primarily on drugs, sex, rock n’ roll and celebrity, that’s what we’ll be hearing and reading about day after day.