The Media is Hungry

We read an article discussing the effects of crime in the media. Generally, the theme centered around the ability of the media to create and maintain a 'culture of fear' which turns Americans into sheep. The culture of fear goes beyond whatever news station you follow on a daily basis. Every station has something to offer you in a manner to which you may not like it. The media has the power to turn isolated incidents into pandemics stretching in every home in every neighborhood. Of course, many of the things that we fear as Americans have never touched our doorstep or the doorsteps of our friends. Rather we live vicariously through the sufferings of others perpetuating an ideology that the world we live in is a dangerous place.

We're hungry as Americans. When we're hungry, often times the best food isn't the food that we choose to consume. We sacrifice quality for temporary satisfactoriness. American media only offers us snacks. In search for real news, reporters 'stake out' like policemen, hoping that they'll catch the latest and greatest celebrity misdemeanor. Due to a fortunate loophole in the system, slander only applies to the non-famous allowing some media stations to produce 'slander stations' romanticizing and over emphasizing the importance of love lives, pregnancies, drug addictions, D.U.I.'s etc. In the feeding frenzy that is entertainment press, being the first to cover the story trumps the factual journalism that Americans are hungry for. What happens now is the portrayal of accusations or presumptions which may or may not eventually lead to a moment of truth. Day after day, the same story takes a new twist as the media strains to wrangle our attention for just one more story. It doesn't take a genius to realize that facts take time, especially when it comes to crimes. Why is it then that we desire immediate results? We are really just setting ourselves up to be lied to by the media day after day until the final truth has been reveled. When truth is revealed, we don't hold the station accountable for the series of misfires along the way, we seem to be content knowing that it's all over and anything that happened in the middle were just bumps along the way.

The lack of accountability is appalling, but at the same time, Americans seem to be hungry for the piecemeal interpretation of stories. If a major drug company engaged in the same behavior of only providing piecemeal perspective and truth, a country would be up in arms. Why then, do we allow ourselves only satisfactory 'snacks' when we should be holding out for a worthy meal? Yes, the fast food nation reference can also be applied to our media consumption. 'I don't care if it tastes like shit, I just want something to fill up on.'