Now, we have turned our viewing ?habits towards watching only the stories, facts and commentary that bring smiles to our faces, and worse, we watch those stories on repeat for days. Under the current system, we can avoid the pesky headaches that come from learning new and hard truths. Frequently, we do not bother to seek any new ?information at all.
Then we occasionally wonder why we get coverage of such silly, and sometimes dangerous, news stories: a million dollar bounty for lost emails, the anti-vaccine movement and Ted Cruz’s “Green Eggs and Ham filibuster” to name a few. I hope I am not the only one wondering why “The Race to 2016” started only days after “The Race to 2012” ended.
I have often wondered why these and other stories gain traction and even launch congressional hearings, and I have come to the conclusion that I blame us. We may not have created the monster, but now that it exists, we cannot stop feeding the beast. If we deprived these stories and the networks that cover them of our attention and Nielsen ratings, we might have a chance to bring some high-brow debate back to our society. What we may lose in entertainment value from not watching every moment of Donald Sterling’s word vomit or every stop in Hillary Clinton’s book tour, we may gain in finally having some worthwhile societal ?achievements to watch.
Sometimes, the media’s hyperfocus on a human-interest story can cause others real harm. For instance, our addiction to the Malaysian Airline story, and the media’s willingness to meet our demand, caused the wider world to be unaware of the kidnapping of 200 Nigerian girls by the terrorist group Boko Haram for the first three weeks of their ?captivity. Crucial time was lost by the lack of media attention on this story. If we had been paying attention, and thus making the Nigerian ?government pay attention, these terrorists might have been intercepted before they transported the girls out of ?the country.
Unfortunately, we can’t just blame the media for this tragic oversight, because we were tuning in too. If we did not give this sensational story such a high rating, news sources might have been forced to look for new stories to draw us back to them, so I’m begging you, if the news does not inform and ?challenge your viewpoints, turn off the TV. If it entertains you rather than ?educates you, turn off the TV. Stop feeding the beast; turn off the TV.?
Leigh Terry is a junior majoring in economics. Her column runs ?biweekly.
