Eddie over at The Standard is railing against TVNZ’s coverage of Michael Jackson, which has eclipsed their reporting of actual news stories:
A mate emailed me after he saw the TVNZ presser (yes, they put one out) announcing the one-hour special saying, ‘I just don’t understand. Have I got people all wrong? Is this what really matters to them? I can’t believe so but if it’s true am I wrong about society and, therefore, are my political ideals wrong?’
I don’t think so. It’s not the people’s fault. It’s the media who systematically distort people’s perceptions of what’s important by focusing on the three cheapest things to cover in the news and have shows about – crime, entertainment, and sport. Feed people tripe enough and tripe starts to become delicious; the mention of tripe makes people hungry.
Every day Stuff has a list of their most popular stories up. Now Stuff carries political analysis by people like Colin James and Vernon Small. NZPA covers most of the Parliamentary Select Committees and has fairly comprehensive coverage of the policy discussions that take place in them and these are usually carried by Stuff so that kind of content is there for people if they want it. Here is a list of the most popular stories on Stuff over the past twenty-four hours:
Jackson’s ‘ghost’ spotted
Australia – a nation of ‘mummy’s boys’
Entertainer faces second sex charge
Boobs on Bikes back amid shrinkage
It’s not a tragedy – it’s a travesty
Jackson’s daughter Paris in tears
Bain to pay some of $2.7m aid
John Key accepts kava: ‘Hell yeah’
Fifth swine flu fatality
Barlow loses Privy Council appeal
This is actually an unusually sophisticated list – most of the time the top ten stories are exclusively about celebrities and sex, with the odd feature about house prices in there somewhere. (Although you could argue that David Bain is now a celebrity.)
Media companies like TVNZ and Fairfax do a LOT of analysis into what kind of stories their customers are interested in and they know that the vast majority want celebrity gossip. The number of people who want in depth political coverage is vanishingly small.
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Pingback by Real News | Ravi's Health Blog — July 9, 2009 @ 8:46 am
Aww – c’mon! I do read in-depth (which sometimes turns out to be rather shallow) political coverage, but that dosent mean I didn’t also check out Jackson’s ghost (morbid curiosity about popular delusions) or about Aussie Mummie’s boys (nothing like slagging off yr neighbours) – Could all of you shining intellects here claim that you have never ever clapped the occasional eye on celeb gossip?
Comment by Leopold — July 9, 2009 @ 9:42 am
This is sad but true. TV3’s turning over of much of its news bulletins to celeb gossip about Jackson for two fucking weeks now annoys the hell out of me, but the reason they’re doing it is obvious and inarguable.
Comment by Psycho Milt — July 9, 2009 @ 9:55 am
Thank God we’ve got Govt owned TV1 and 2 to provide more serious and in depth news.
JC
Comment by JC — July 9, 2009 @ 10:25 am
Comment by kahikatea — July 9, 2009 @ 10:59 am
I think the Romans had this all figured out, when times were bad they just had bigger, better and more bloody games at the Colosseum.
Despite what we think, we are not that different.
Comment by ieuan — July 9, 2009 @ 11:44 am
So Michael Jackson was sacrificed because the economy went bad?
Comment by Zoo Neeland — July 9, 2009 @ 2:18 pm
Are we sure he’s dead? I mean, couldn’t he be hanging out with his former father in law?
Just asking.
Comment by llew — July 9, 2009 @ 3:05 pm
Thank god we have National Radio (or Radio NZ National, as she now likes to be called). They’re doing their best to slowly lower the quality there too – and they must be stopped. It is the last significant holdout of journalism in the country. RNZI is also a very valuable service to the Pacific, one which is often underappreciated.
Comment by George D — July 9, 2009 @ 3:48 pm
Because they want a significant part of their audience (which includes a good number of medium and high earners) to turn off the television, and be less likely to turn it on the next time? Cause that makes sense.
Comment by George D — July 9, 2009 @ 3:50 pm
The best part of last night’s news was taking bets on how long the coverage of MJ’s memorial would be. Prime came in best with only seven minutes but then that could be ‘worst’ since they only have half an hour of news anyway.
When I saw MJ’s kid talking at the end I knew that would be the money shot that all the channels would run with. Perfect soundbite really, short and sweet.
Comment by Boganette — July 9, 2009 @ 3:50 pm
He is llew: they are both in Hawaii.
Comment by Clunking Fist — July 10, 2009 @ 1:08 pm
I understand that Jackson’s coffin disappeared before the end of the funeral. Does that count as a bodily assumption into heaven (or into whatever afterlife of Jackson’s choice)?
Comment by Camden Whelk — July 10, 2009 @ 8:03 pm