Watching NBC-Channel 2 Induces Questions on the State of the Local Media

Media Critiques
Watching NBC-Channel 2 Induces Questions on the State of the Local Media
By Jenny Yau
Nov 22, 2005, 18:15

Looking for a good scare? Tune into Channel 2 news tonight at 10pm to find out all about the horror in Houston!

School lockdowns, gas station robberies, gangs, wandering New Orleans sex offenders, prisoner escapees, stalkers, fake cop shootings and police invasions, all in your local home town. Be sure to keep your children close by and watch your back as well.

How comforting, indeed, it is to see the local NBC affiliate encourage Houstonians to participate in solving gang issues by posting a toll free 1-800 number in order to report graffiti.

Now to alleviate the fear, Channel 2 delivers stories on less fearful, but still, significant topics.

Weather updates have always been inserted into our daily, local news. Tornados and hurricanes are certainly significant information items to the public.

Sports, of course is just hot. With the baseball season now ending and football season now picking up, the late night news always reserves a spot for the Texans. In fact, on Sunday, in place of the regular news, Sports Sunday takes precedence. Crime, weather and sport entertainment seem to take up a predominant portion of the nightly news.

No doubt, Channel 2 delivers to the public more in-depth, useful facts as well. One story in the middle of Novermber, for example, pertains directly to your health.

The lead story at the top of the headlines concerns meat truck deliveries, revealing to the public how inappropriately long meat lingers in back of trucks in the blistering heat while being transported from one place to another. Another story tells the public that fake flu vaccines that are ineffective are being distributed to citizens.

Although the delivery is distastefully intertwined with a clear element of fear, the information alerts local citizens to crime and to danger. Maybe more importantly, the story provides a clearer consciousness for the state of public health.

But what about the state of our minds? Is the information being fed to us enriching enough for us to safely say that we are adequately educated about local issues of consequence? Or is it just enough information to make us think that we know enough to control of our lives? How come, not once in a week of watching the nightly television shows, am I told about my congressman? Does the absence of information in political issues, perhaps, have an influence in the lack of voter turnout?

Assuming that the average laymen rarely go out of their way in their day-to-day lives to do research and educate themselves about local public policies, it seems fair that journalists have a duty to take on that role. And what better place could there be than local television news, a heavily watched source, to include this type of information?

Watching a week’s worth of news brings me to the underlying question: Is our society really in control of the state of our nation? Or are we just oblivious to the constant changes and decisions made by our local congressmen?

We are being saturated with useless knowledge, but we come away with an illusion that we know a slight bit more about current events.

Do we really need to know about pet owners whose dogs listen to music? I think not.

It is the journalist’s job to report to the public on the major unresolved problems of our age. It behooves the public to be more knowledgeable and it empowers the everyday Joe. I even dare to say that we would be protecting citizens more by limiting the number of robbery stories, and instead filling that gap with advise on how to get involved in taking part in congressmen’s decisions.

It is time that local TV news channels take responsibility for their role. The scariest truth is not stalkers or rotting meat in our markets, it is knowing that journalists continue to coddle us with sensationalist entertainment and useless facts.