Amazing Ourselves to Death (Chapters 5-9)

In the book, Amazing Ourselves to Death, Prof. Strate discusses “Breaking the News.” I never realized how much sexism, racism, appearance, etc. comes into play when casting news anchors. For example, when Dan Rather had resigned, Katie Couric took over for CBS’s evening news program. Even though, Katie Couric had become the first woman to anchor a network evening news program, Executives were skeptical because they believed that audiences would not take women newscasters seriously because their voices weren’t deep enough. Also, racism played a part in news casting. Bernard Shaw was chosen as principal anchor and that was considered a groundbreaking move for televised news. After Connie Chung was an anchor on television, people felt “comfortable” about an Asian anchor woman.

Even the size of the individuals head is important when on camera. People with larger-than-average heads come across well on television (something I just learned). Age and weight are also a major factor in news casting, especially for women. You have to be young, thin, and attractive to land the job. “Weather women” especially have to be young, thin, and attractive because they are always standing and the audience can see their entire body. If you do a Google search for weather women, the first results to show up are, Beautiful weather woman, hot weather woman, sexy weather woman so and so. That is pretty ridiculous because when I watch the weather I want to see the weather, not some “hot” weather woman. When it comes down to it, television newscast is just a show. When a reporter is on scene, they don’t usually say anything too helpful. The whole point of filming on location is so that the audience can see how bad the weather is outside. (As if, we couldn’t just look out the window). Watching a snow storm or rainstorm makes good television. When people see a news anchor knee deep in snow, then they realize just how bad it is outside. It’s kind of a joke and I feel sorry for the reporter that has to go on location and be outside in treacherous weather only to give a report that says nothing and isn’t helpful.

It’s called the news but is it really news? I don’t find celebrity gossip and scandals news. I know that is what attracts audiences, but I think it is a waste of time. Crime and health threats also seem to be appealing to the audience. As Prof. Strate stated, “If it bleeds, it leads.” Why is it that the news uses scare tactics? Must we see the same video played over and over again of some tragedy that recently occurred? How does this benefit the audience? After reading about the news I wanted to say something positive about it but I really couldn’t think of anything. I believe news is not only bad but is good but unfortunately we rarely ever see any good news on TV. Stories with happy endings aren’t very newsworthy and don’t attract an audience. Hopefully the whole dynamic of the news will change because it is an hour of depressing broadcast that I would rather just not watch.