Our Voice

    Anna Nicole Smith, a celeb-reality star and tabloid favorite, died recently, sending the media into a frenzy and getting prime coverage on every single newscast in the past week.  Also, on that same week many things happened in other parts of the world, like people dying because of the war and famine, mother nature going crazy with all the snow up north burying people in unusually large amounts of snow, and candidates announcing their presidential bid among many others… but of course, many do not actually know that any of these happened because the mystery that surrounds Smith’s death, not to mention the real father of her baby is more interesting than the actual news.
    Is there something wrong with this picture?
    It is unfortunately true that the state of the newsroom has gone downhill in recent years, putting more emphasis on the death of someone who probably was a very nice person, yet contributed as much as John Doe to the state and welfare of the world. Not to say that her life was insignificant, but there were probably people that died in that same week that deserve more recognition.
    Many would say that the media masterminded this, they are, after all, in control of what information is out there, but we do have the choice to not get sucked in. We have the choice to not care about this type of news and actually care about real news.
    Many students in our age group are so uninformed when it comes to current events. And we get it.  Real news is sad. It’s depressing. And some days, they all sound the same. But that’s the real world. That is the real “reality” T.V.
     Something has to be done. We owe it to ourselves and to the future of this generation to stay informed. One day our grandchildren will ask us where we were when that certain big news happened, when that change in history occurred, and it might not mean so much now, but it matters. This is our history and our generation is writing it.
    We cannot fight for causes we do not know; we cannot stand for issues we do not understand without knowing what is actually going on outside our protective bubble.
    And besides, to actually read or watch real news can take as little five minutes. You know what happened in Grey’s Anatomy and House. And you probably sat there and watched the ridiculously long commercials when all you needed to do is flip that remote to Headline News and watch the headlines scroll across the screen. It takes threeminutes, then another three on the next commercial. By the time your show is over, not only have you watched Grey’s but you could have also learned a little more about the world and elevated yourself from mediocrily informed to somewhat informed. Hey, it’s something.
    Be proactive.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Feb 16 2007. Filed under Opinion, Our Voice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry