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Tragedy as entertainment...
Dec. 22nd, 2008 09:38 amI subscribe to a feed from "Poynter Online", Poynter is a graduate school for journalists. I find news reporting a fascinating thing: what's reported, how it's reported and what reaction is "expected" from those who read it. Poynter tries hard to focus on what I consider "real" journalism (as in not the Hollywood gossip/news-rag type stories). In addition to having meta on journalism, the feed often gives some solid, practical writing advice.
This latest entry is meta on the whole insanity of the Caylee Anthony story. I thought it was spot on and thought I'd share:
The Lure and Peril of 'Missing White Girl' Syndrome
The article is good, but I would add one thought that isn't touched on in it: That this type of story is so promoted because there is a collective belief that such terrible things just shouldn't happen to "this type" of person. If a young, poor inner city child disappears, the world goes "Those things happen to that type" -- what ever that type may be.
I think it's equally true that most of the readers/voyeurs of this story don't really have an emotional investment in the tragic death of this child, but rather revel in the outrage and indignation over how the case was handled, how this was "allowed" to happen or how "the powers that be" seem so incompetent. It's comforting to cry "Someone should have done something!" when distance and time insures that someone didn't have to be you.
I would be more tolerant of such stories if I believed that they led to a greater awareness of the vulnerability of children every where. If I thought that such exposure motivated people to be more involved with community projects such as safe houses and family counseling. If I even imagined this would drive people to become better neighbors and friends in order to avert such tragedies in the future. But I don't. To most readers out there this is nothing more than a real life police procedural, and those involved are nothing more then characters in the script.
We really haven't changed that much from when people would line up to see a hanging or when people would fill the coliseum to see the gladiators fight, have we?
This latest entry is meta on the whole insanity of the Caylee Anthony story. I thought it was spot on and thought I'd share:
The Lure and Peril of 'Missing White Girl' Syndrome
The article is good, but I would add one thought that isn't touched on in it: That this type of story is so promoted because there is a collective belief that such terrible things just shouldn't happen to "this type" of person. If a young, poor inner city child disappears, the world goes "Those things happen to that type" -- what ever that type may be.
I think it's equally true that most of the readers/voyeurs of this story don't really have an emotional investment in the tragic death of this child, but rather revel in the outrage and indignation over how the case was handled, how this was "allowed" to happen or how "the powers that be" seem so incompetent. It's comforting to cry "Someone should have done something!" when distance and time insures that someone didn't have to be you.
I would be more tolerant of such stories if I believed that they led to a greater awareness of the vulnerability of children every where. If I thought that such exposure motivated people to be more involved with community projects such as safe houses and family counseling. If I even imagined this would drive people to become better neighbors and friends in order to avert such tragedies in the future. But I don't. To most readers out there this is nothing more than a real life police procedural, and those involved are nothing more then characters in the script.
We really haven't changed that much from when people would line up to see a hanging or when people would fill the coliseum to see the gladiators fight, have we?
