Whither to, O Medium?

Let's consider the Elians and Runaway Brides and Natalie Holloways. From the media and from the reaction, one would think that no other children are here illegally or that there are no kidnappings or missing teens apart from the ones just mentioned. For example, the Runaway Bride was sent a bill close to a hundred thousand dollars after it was found that she had made up the whole story. The police said that she was asked to pay because they had employed hundreds of people in the search. Hmm, putting hundreds of policemen in search of one person... let's look at this in the light of the statistic (http://www.kidsfightingchance.com/statistics.html)that "every 40 seconds a child is reported missing or abducted in the United States" (this does not mean these are all real crimes but hey, neither was the RB case). Do the math. The price tag RB received is an order of magnitude higher than the average cost of a kidnapping investigation that DOES NOT HAVE MEDIA ATTENTION. That proved, lets look at the media itself. One might be tempted to think, "Hey that's awfully nice of the media. They put this focus on issues that force the authorities to act." Nope. Today's news agencies are like hollywood starlets: a hussy, an intemperate, attention-seeking creature that will do anything for the publicity numbers. Yeah, she'll take up causes but only if it pushes up the ratings. But she will also get pregnant, get drunk, get naked or get divorced (Yes I was thinking of Britney) for a few points more. As they say No Press is Bad Press. Why is this? Because we don't pay for the news we read. Advertising pays for the news. This is a critical factor.Now I know there are some journalists that try to make a difference but look at the direction the industry as a whole is taking... Faced with the onslaught of the Internet and blogs and Wikipedias, news agencies are realizing that its difficult to compete for the advertising dollar. So they turn to the human interest story for the quick buck, more eyeballs = more clicks = more money. Consider the huge gulf that separates the online version of the Times Of India (www.timesOfIndia.com) and the printed version. Its tremendous! The titles of articles are sometimes sexual and other times totally unrelated to what the content is, which, in turn, is sensationalized beyond measure. So that was my rant. Anyway, what can be done? Probably nothing right now. News agencies will have to plumb lower and lower depths in their pandering to lowest common denominator while they try to maintain thier existing business model. And then hopefully one day, people will realize that they are missing out on important issues and start paying for quality news and then, perhaps, the media will find a revenue and a business model that allows real reporting. Until then, let's not be surprised at lopsided reactions to events such as this!

Ragerman’s Hypocrisy Meter© says, "Its the way of the world but that doesnt make it right. People without the power of the Media behind them have a right to justice too. But on the HypoScale (1 thru 10) its probably a Category 6."

(FYI, I posted this originally as a comment on http://laksays.blogspot.com/ then decided it needs to be a posting by itself. No its not pilfered.)