Is there a news channel that isn't social network obsessed?
Asked by
meagan (
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March 29th, 2010
Alright, I’ll admit – I’m a younger person that doesn’t really care about watching news. Especially local news.
This morning I was unlucky enough to witness some crap.
My local news channel is freaking obsessed with twitter and facebook. What gives? This kind of crap drives me up the freaking wall like nothing else.
Then I change to the weather channel for some sanity – and wtf? “Hey we’re ustreaming with Destin, FL!” I could really kill someone right now.
Why are news stations so obsessed with social networking sites? I understand communicating with your viewers or whatever… but its getting to be a bit much. Why do they care what facebook thinks about EVERYTHING? Lay off and give us REAL NEWS.
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15 Answers
There are plenty of “young folk” out there and the newscasters know that about every single teenager has some sort of FaceySpacey and that most will compulsively follow anything that reminds them of something familiar. Also, if you get a TwitteryPage friender for your item/activity/television channel, they are more likely to buy/do/watch it, respectively.
I agree, communicating about communicating is a little over the top. Have you tried CNN and the Weather Channel? Also, if you have cable, the BBC news station in the US is a pretty good source for international news. Network news is going to give you just sound bytes; everything is couched in sensationalism to try to attract and hold viewers.
@PandoraBoxx The weather channel surprised me this morning with its “ustreaming” for spring break. x_x
@Fred931 Thats ridiculous. Don’t give them a choice, I say. “Young folk” aren’t the ones getting ready for work in the morning.
@meagan Remember that teenagers have much less common sense than the ones getting ready for work in the morning and will instinctively accept anything that exists on the interwebs.
I think your feelings about this are a bit over the top.
I don’t know if they are obsessed but it is a good way to spread news to more people.
I’m guessing you’re an American, so all news stations are presented like comic books and filled with shit stories with overenthusiastic reporting, the wording of which seems to be intended for a 5 year old.
Al Jazeera is probably the best mainstream worldwide news network.
BBC is also good, but a little bit more “choosy” with their reporting…
Try listening to NPR on the radio.
The English polymath/actor/comedian Stephen Fry (he’s been on the US show Bones a few times) put up a clip on his Twitter account purportedly from the year 2034 where all the social sites have melded together and is called Twit on MyFace.
I laughed and laughed.
I don’t watch the news on television. I read it online from a few sites. But for better or worse, they’re all online. They’re all on some social site. That’s just the way it is now.
@meagan: AM radio is the best source for news which has not been affected (much) by social networking. They also report “real news” on AM which isn’t reported on FM or TV because the AM listener has a longer attention span and is more interested in “real news” than the FM listener who would have probably turned the dial twice by the time a single AM topic was covered.
Ah I never tried AM in the States…
AM carries the best music station in the UK, Classic Gold 1557
JIm Lehrer, Bill Moyer’s Journal and Now are all good PBS news programs.
It’s not something I have noticed. I watch all the major network news reports, plus PBS and BBS.
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