While Matt and I don’t often blog on the same topics (especially not in the same week), the world-changing events of the past few days in Japan, in particular where news and communications are concerned, are quite worthy of much examination.
What struck me most was how we as news consumers, despite our day-to-day use of online and social media to remain informed, in the wake of disaster, still rely so much on broadcast media for up-to-the-minute words and pictures. Who hasn’t been riveted to the television and radio to see and hear the very latest of the on-going crisis.
Matt touched on the vast resources that the national and international news outlets bring to bear for such events, providing credibility, accuracy and top, experienced journalists from a range of locations, not to mention the analysis of scores of experts. It’s a combination you just can’t find anywhere else – certainly not online to the same breadth and degree.
It has also been rewarding, albeit bittersweet due to the tragedy, to have the national news networks, such as CNN and, in particular CNN Headline News, getting “back to basics” with actual continuing newscasts. I’ve been incredibly disappointed in recent years, with news networks that have become more about talk shows and talking heads than actual straightforward news reporting. Nothing like coming home from a late event in hopes of catching a quick TV news update only to find a replay of Joy Beyhar pontificating – on HNN!
Once again traditional news media steps up like no one else can in times of trouble, helping us try to make sense of it all.