Friday, June 6th, 2008
De-sensitisation of news
Years ago, my friend and I were talking about the cult film Pulp Fiction. I asked “what do you see in the film,” not fully understanding it’s concept or storyboard. I continued “It’s so graphic, you know,” to which he replied “you have to watch it a few times to get de-sensitised.” I struggled to see the point of that. He was seeing some of the worst things a human can do to another and becoming de-sensitised. I said no thanks, because where does it go from there?
There seems to be no news like bad news, perpetual spin of pessimism in the lines of the autoque. I suppose bad news is all that people will ever talk about. God forbid; ‘did yer hear about that tree that didn’t fall on anyone in the storm last night?’ If something contraversial doesn’t happen, it isn’t news.
Is it irresponsible, journalistically, to over-report stories? Hearing too much of the same thing can lose public interest. For example, some may suggest that the Madeleine McCann case was over-reported. Over-reporting here lead for a need of information, any scrap of new information, even if sources turned to were those who were leaking it and weren’t official. I’ve never seen the phrase ‘a source said’ so many times in conjunction with one story.
Music can be overplayed. Anyone sick of ‘Bad day’ - Daniel Powter, ‘She will be loved’ - Maroon 5 etc.? It’s because they haven’t only been played on the radio to death but they are now being played over the top of advertisiments on television. I wonder how record sales for those singles are now compared to then?
So, in conclusion, news/current happenings; do you think the nation is becoming de-sensitised to national stories such as the Burma crisis, Mugabe developments, Gordon Brown-outs? Would we act differently if it were 20 years ago? Do we sit bolt upright when we hear of the 10’s of thousands of people that have died in a disaster anymore?
Discuss! …
on Friday, June 6th, 2008 at 3:06 pm:
I tend to agree with you Harry. Starting with news, I am personally sick and tired of Burma floods, China earthquakes and Mugabe actions.
As insensitive as it may sound, it is all too much. We all know that many people’s lives are in danger and that more of them are suffering, but at the same time all these news start lately with “aid agencies say” and then the usual “BBC is banned from reporting from”. Haven’t we all had enough? Maybe it is time for a bit of diversity and rephrasing.
As for music, the example that always pops in my mind is Rhianna’s Umbrella. Good song, nevertheless, but at the same time, 11 weeks no. 1 in UK charts made me hate the song. Maybe I will listen to it in 5 years and I will like it.
on Saturday, June 7th, 2008 at 12:26 pm:
The news and how it is presented has changed so much over 20 years I’m sure. As the years have passed news television has probably become more and more controversial with the imagery it shows from awful events happening half way across the world.. as our resources got better and news was becoming bigger I’m sure the audience were sucked right in and got really emotionally involved. Perhaps they even thought about it a bit, “god aren’t we lucky, look at them poor people” or “why is this happening to them when we live like this?”
But as the years have passed the news have thrown more and more horrific and heart breaking images in our faces (mothers and fathers crying and screaming in dispair because their only child had died in the awful burma ordeal). And yes, the more we see the images and sights the more we get used to it, but I wouldn’t go to the extent that we are de-sensitised because of that.
I think with anything like that in the news as a human you will always get emotionally involved, even if it’s just during the 20 second clip. It isn’t a film like pulp fiction which you can watch over and over, the news don’t repeat the same images day in day out.. (exceptions I’m sure) the news is real life it is happening. People are suffering and we are watching it. For anyone to become de-sensitised purely because they think they’ve “seen it all before” I think is unfortunate.. But perhaps that is the way we are all going, we are simply just getting used to it.