A2322
v.105;no.341
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Page 5 • Thursday, June 3, 1999
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MARC
GRETHER
Modern
journalism
values
drama
instead of
newsworthy
stories
O n March 15th, an Amtrak train
crashed, killing 11 people on the out
skirts of Chicago. Graphic footage of
the grisly scene were carried on newscasts
of the event for days, while many newspa
pers carried similar photographs.
A tourist bus on a Mother’s Day excur
sion to a casino crashed in Louisiana leav
ing 22 dead. News coverage of the event
discussed every aspect of the crash, going
into excruciating detail about the possible
medical problems of the bus driver.
A group of tourists was boating on Lake
Hamilton in Arkansas on May 2. Suddenly,
the boat sank, killing 13 of the 21 passen
gers. The speed with which the boat went
down precluded photographs from being
taken of the event.
Didn’t hear about the boating accident?
Not many did.
No national newspapers carried the sto
ry, which garnered front-page coverage in
only two regional newspapers, the Dallas
Morning News and Memphis’ The Daily
News.
The national networks that aired the
story did so well into their broadcasts, indi
cating that this was not a top story.
Yet the media was quick to point out
why the boating story was not a media pri
ority. It was, as MSNBC vice president and
general manager Erik Sorenson recently
put it, the lack of footage that was “com
pelling” enough.
What type of photograph exactly would
be needed to make a story about the un
timely death of 13 people compelling? Rest
assured, if 13 children were killed in yet
another school shooting, train wreck or
bus crash, the story would be major news,
compelling photograph or not. Although
there can be no doubt that every effort
would be made to have a picture of every
minute detail.
It seems this need for a compelling pic
ture stems from news formats which value
drama over newsworthiness.
This approach to news reporting takes
what is deemed the most entertaining view
of potential stories and often overlooks
those stories which do not lend themselves
to this format, such as the boating acci
dent. Whenever possible, the events are
covered live. At other times, in news mag
azines, there are dramatizations involving
actors involved in a fictionalized version
of the story.
This style of portraying news robs sto
ries of other potential subtexts. Lance Ben
nett in his book, News: The Politics of Illu
sion, discusses this issue by detailing
various ways of reporting a murder. On
one end of the reporting spectrum is the
sensationalized news approach.
On the other end, “a murder can be re
ported analytically in order to show how
various aspects of the crime reflect social
problems known to be linked with vio
lent crime (such as poverty, family vi
olence, unemployment, alco
holism, social instability, or
prison system failures).” The
first approach fails to include
this larger social commen- ...
tary. V f
Another problem — 1 *
with a sensationalized approach to news is
the lack of context in which to actually
learn something from news stories. An ac
tion-oriented news style treats each issue
as separate and does nothing to suggest the
causes of the underlying problem.
Without context or background infor
mation in often fragmented and disjointed
news stories, the news is like any other
form of entertainment, rather than the im
portant protector of freedom that it needs
to be.
The lives of those killed in the boating
accident should have received more atten
tion. Their lives are worth just as much as
the 13 murdered in Colorado by Dylan Kle-
bold and Eric Harris.
Jesse Jackson may have been busy free
ing the three American hostages held in
Yugoslavia on the Saturday the boat sank,
but more papers should have used some of
their prime column-space on the boating
accident.
The television networks also should
have let the public know more about the
misfortune that befell our countrymen be
cause nothing is more important to us as
Americans than what is happening right
here at home.
Compelling picture or not.
Marc Grether is a graduate student in
mathematics.
CALEB
MCDANIEL
Attempts
at media
reform
pose new
challenges
T he relationship between the media
and the masses is the classic love af
fair of American democracy.
In the early days, the love was strong.
The people thought so much of their press
that the protection of its freedom headlined
the Bill of Rights.
But in recent years, the relationship has
been on the rocks. Disenchanted by the
media’s unfortunate tendency towards sen
sationalized stories and intrusive news
gathering tactics, the public has lost trust
in its one-time true love.
Attempts to patch things up between
press and public are everywhere in abun
dance. One of the most recent movements
towards reconciliation has been a theory
known as civic journalism.
Civic journalists believe communities
can be mainly self-sufficient if they are
closely-knit and well-cultivated. Thus,
civic journalism usually consists of cooper
ative, problem-solving projects between
media outlets and other community enti
ties.
They are especially interested in being
catalysts for community dialogue. There
fore, civic journalists often join hands with
business leaders to sponsor town hall
meetings, as well as in-depth community
coverage in newspapers and newscasts.
But like most noble ideas, community-
minded journalism has a tendency to be
blissfully unaware of its own limitations.
Unless caution is exercised,
this latest media bandwag
on may tip over because of
over-enthusiastic passen
gers.
Zealous journalists have
tried to implement the ideals
of civic journalism around
the country, and the move
ment has come most recent
ly to Bryan-College Station.
Tuesday night, Bryan-
College Station got a taste
of this brand of civic jour
nalism in its own back
yard. A town hall meet
ing was held in Bryan to
discuss youth violence.
Significantly, however, the meet
ing was not moderated by an elected com
munity leader, but by Mike Wright, host of
“Brazos Valley This Morning,” a journalist.
The forum was aired live on primetime
television and on a popular music radio
station.
These are the telltale signs of civil jour
nalism — journalists taking it upon them
selves to use the power of their profession
for some community outreach.
There is no doubt that civic journalists
do have the best of intentions. Forums like
the one held Tuesday night are not finan
cially profitable, and by their willingness to
eat up 105 minutes of airtime to broadcast
the event, KBTX-
TV and B102-FM have
proven their sincerity.
Good intentions, however,
are not enough to make civic
journalism work, and its defects
have yet to be fully explored.
No broken love affair can be fixed un
less both parties are willing. The reunion
of press and public is no different. Civic
journalists seem to think the estrangement
of democracy and journalism is mainly the
fault of the media. If only journalists
would do more for the community, all
would be well again.
But the public’s disillusionment will not
be dispelled so easily.
The public has become accustomed to a
media more entertaining than socially re-
sponsibile.
Audiences addicted to the reporting of
car accidents and three-alarm fires may
greet serious
attempts at community
uplift with a yawn and a gen
eral “ho-hum.”
Therefore, for all its democratic pre
tensions, careless civic journalism can
consolidate majority opinions instead of
diversifying discourse.
Town hall meetings usually attract ac
tive citizens whose voices are used to be
ing heard instead of the more jaded citi
zens who have become used to being
ignored. As a result, it is highly possible
that journalist-led efforts will only serve to
homogenize public discourse.
Judging from the local media fallout of
Tuesday’s meeting, for instance, the con
sensus at the meeting was a cry for faith
and hope to be restored in the communi
ty’s children.
Tell us something we do not already
know. The need for faith and hope is cer
tainly a real one, but it also too vague to be
a hard-hitting community solution.
Perhaps journalists should simply stick
to hard-hitting news after all.
Caleb McDaniel is a junior history major. .
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From China, with love
United States must enact policies to combat dangerous fruits of Chinese espionage
C
ONSERVATIVES HAVE BEEN
telling us for years that
the communist government in
China cannot be trusted.
TOM
OWENS
Last week, a Senate com
mittee, led by Christopher Cox
of California, released a report
that justifies right-wing para
noia.
However, this latest devel
opment is not surprising when
one considers the historical
character of the communist
Chinese state.
Quite simply, the Chinese
communists are the worst
criminals the world has ever
known.
In addition to their severe
restrictions on religious and
political freedom, they are
guilty of the holocaust of near
ly 50 million dissidents, and
the death of over 100 million
unborn children through their
“one child” forced abortion
policies.
Think about this: even if
Hitler had killed every Jew in
Europe (about 16 million at
the time), he would only be
slightly more than one-
tenth the quantitative
murderer the Red Chi
nese have proven
themselves to be.
Americans must
keep this in mind when
evaluating the regime
in China. The worst
mass murderers of all
time cannot be expect
ed to have moral
qualms about stealing nuclear secrets.
The Cox Report found that, from Carter through
Clinton, the Communists have committed the
worst acts of espionage in U.S. history.
“With the stolen U.S. technology, the PRC has
leaped, in a handful of years, from 1950s-era strate
gic nuclear capabilities to the more modern ther
monuclear weapons designs. These modern ther
monuclear weapons took the United States decades
of effort, hundreds of millions of dollars and nu
merous nuclear tests to achieve,” the report said.
Although the report’s main point is that the se
curity of American nuclear research facilities is ex
tremely poor, the revelation of China’s advance
ment in nuclear technology has consequences far
beyond a tightening of security.
China will soon possess a nuclear arsenal capa
ble of striking the entire mainland United States.
America must act quickly to avoid another Cold
War and maintain dominance over the world.
The following is a stepwise plan for assuring our
success:
1. Americans must elect strong conservative
leadership that values America’s present state over
an idealized vision of the future.
When the Chinese fund the President’s re-elec
tion, it cannot be reasonably expected that he will
deal with them harshly.
Someone must fill the enormous shoes of
Ronald Reagan and defeat this second “Evil Em
pire.”
2. Our security must be rock solid. According to
the Cox Report, “China requires as a normal prac
tice that many of the thousands of students,
tourists and other Chinese visitors to the United
States to seek out bits of information that might be
used for military purposes.”
To prevent further security abuses, citizens of
the People’s Republic of China residing illegally in
the United States must be deported to prevent fur
ther theft from our laboratories and academic insti
tutions.
We must end all tourism and visits between Chi
na and ourselves. To prevent other aliens from sell
ing secrets to the Chinese, non-citizens must be
banned from defense-sensitive research.
The enforcement of these regulations should be
under martial law, and its offenders charged with
treason, under threat of capital punishment if
proven guilty.
The Cox Report also found several United States
corporations acted illegally in their conduct with
the Chinese.
According to the report, one particularly gross
offender was Hughes Electronics, which assisted
the Chinese in the development of satellite-launch
ing rockets. Much of the technology involved in
placing a satellite in orbit can also be applied to de
livering a nuclear warhead.
“Hughes deliberately acted without seeking to
obtain the legally required licenses,” the report
said.
In the future, companies like Hughes found to
be selling unauthorized information to the Chinese
should be given one warning, and after a second
offense their assets should be seized and sold at
auction to fund U.S. nuclear research.
3. National defense must be the first priority,
and the first act should be the deployment of a nu
clear missile defense system. America needs mis
sile defense now, regardless of any treaties signed
with the U.S.S.R.
U.S. conventional forces must also be upgraded.
We should re-deploy our great battleships, and
build more carriers to meet and exceed Reagan’s
dream of a 600-ship navy.
Also, U.S. soldiers should be paid a living wage;
their sacrifices are worth more than poverty level
subsistence.
4. We must enact a comprehensive trade embar
go on China.
Last year, China ran a $57 billion trade surplus
with the United States, which reflects a net transfer
of wealth from our country to theirs.
For the technology China cannot steal, our trade
policies fund the research.
5. U.S. nuclear research should be accelerated.
Now that China has stolen our current technology,
we must continue research under strict security to
maintain an edge in the arms race.
With this combination of strategic investments,
America can break China the same way she broke
the USSR: by continuously out-spending and out-
researching the enemy until they can no longer af
ford to keep up.
Through sacrifice and decisive action, America
will remain as the world’s strongest power and de
feat the last major bastion of communism.
Tom Owens is a senior
chemical engineering major.