Week in 7

Herb Drill’s theory that news is recycled has really gotten me thinking when I tune into the news. When I began to observe this idea, I realized that it was a common trait throughout many of the television stations here. For example, when we were having that heat wave last week and the week before, apparently nothing else in the country was happening. The news reporters were constantly repeating that there was a heat wave. Obviously people know that if they walked outside. If that was not enough, several of the television stations started to look back at history of Philadelphia heat waves. It really got me to think, do people really care about this? I asked a friend about it and she said that it gets annoying when you want to see what is going on around the world. It’s true, there should be some type of filter that blocks out repeated news. Maybe news reporters should concentrate more and health issues when there is no new news. On the other hand I understand the difficulty of their job. Regardless of what happens in the country that day, they are still responsible to report for the set time. Sometimes there is just nothing that “important” happening. Also there are just so many shootings and killings that a television station can cover. Viewers don’t want to see a whole broadcast on the latest killing.
On the other hand this week, there was a comment made by another classmate about Americans wanting to see international news. I valued and took his opinion into consideration. I seemed to disagree with that statement. Americans are so “self centered.” I do not think many Americans are interested in what’s going on outside of their world. I feel as if it doesn’t affect them many Americans don’t care. Its horrible to say, but I feel that that’s true. I feel Americans have become so accustomed to this filtered recycled news that if there was change many would be upset. I do believe and wish that the news would take out some of the filler and report on news relevant to the people. By slowly filtering in news like that perhaps the news would become more “educational.”
This week I don’t have any questions. I am clear with the reading and topics covered in class.

Shira Cohen