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Date Posted: 00:08:41 11/06/04 Sat
Author: By Nestor U. Torre
Subject: Excessive stress on crime and gossip on TV newscast

Excessive stress on crime and gossip on TV newscast

Updated 08:09pm (Mla time) Nov 05, 2004
By Nestor U. Torre
Inquirer News Service

Editor's Note: Published on page A2-8 of the November 6, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


A DISTURBING development on local TV screens is the increased emphasis in newscasts on crime and show biz stories. This is a relatively new change of focus that suggests that TV news people feel that viewers even of newscasts want to be "entertained."

The trouble with TV news stories is the fact that most of them are smalltime, precinct-based and melodramatic.

After a while, we wonder why the latest cellphone theft, neighborhood altercation, beer garden brawl, girlie club raid or petty larceny case is being trotted out for viewers' "information."

Melodramatic value

It's obvious that information isn't really what these picayune crime pieces are about. They appear to be featured mostly for their slice-of-life, melodramatic value.

They come off as little, highly charged and emotional dramas that are played for full emotionalism.

In the precinct, it's par for the course to egg victims on to berate, slap and otherwise lash out at their tormentors, with entertainment or cathartic effect on viewers as the major motivation.

Maximum impact

In fact, our cynical mind prompts us to conjecture that, when the victims hurl colorful and quotable insults at the villains in their lives, some of their entertainingly pungent remarks may have been fed to them by the people doing the coverage, for maximum impact.

As for the increase of show biz "news" on TV these days, this is a direct spin-off from the popularity of show biz talk-variety shows.

Some broadcast executives covetous of those shows' high ratings may want a piece of their prosperous action, hence their proliferation on TV newscasts.

Thee trouble is, many show biz reports have a hard time qualifying as "news." Most of the time, they're rumors, plugs, tit-for-tat reactions, and even barefaced concoctions given a spurious veracity on the tube, just to promote a production or to spice up the show.

This is bad enough when done in an entertainment-oriented program, and much worse when put into a so-called "newscast." After all, everything in a newscast is supposed to be factual and deserving of the viewer's cogent appreciation and analysis.

But, show biz "news" is often fluff--so, where's the factual value in that? Once again, our heads get knocked against the now often ignored division between news and entertainment on TV.

Emphasis

This increased emphasis on crime and gossip is lamentable, because it encourages viewers here to be even more vapid than they've already been. Newscasts are supposed to inform viewers about the events and issues of the day, so they can develop themselves into thinking, acting members of the body politic.

But, if much of what they're fed on the tube is gore and fluff, what kind of citizens will they turn out to be? No wonder we're in such a mess.

To help get us out of the fix we're in, crime and gossip should be downplayed in newscasts, rather than giving them the hyped-up prominence they enjoy today.

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