Sunday, February 05, 2006
It's starts with a whistle and ends with a gun ...
The Big Game is today.
For the last two weeks, there has been a persistent cloud of negativity hanging over the media's coverage of the event. OK, right off the bat, I will concede the counter-argument to everything I'm about to say -- two weeks is a long time to wait for the Super Bowl.
BUT, it is amazing to me how the media are able to turn the occupational difficulties of their profession (i.e. boredom and difficulty finding good stories) into the "product" that their profession creates and sells. It's quite a racket. I think lawyers are the only other profession that can consistently create work for themselves.
What do I mean? The New York Times' headline for the Super Bowl today is, "Everything's over but the game." Think about that -- everything's over except the whole point of the entire endeavor in the first place.
There are probably 10,000,000 reporters in Detroit right now, all trying to fill column space/air time with "stuff". Of course, there is absolutely no fucking way that you're going to get 14 days of news out of anything, let alone a goddamn football game. So what happens is, the media start reporting "stuff" about how there is no "stuff" to report ... the non-story as story.
24 hour-a-day news was supposed to make us more informed, but it turns out that there just isn't enough stuff to be informed about. (Or at least, informed in the way that the popular media is capable of informing us. If you are really concerned about learning about the world, the local newstand is filled with many fine periodicals.) In order to fill the shelves of the store it built but that nobody really wanted, the media had to start selling you stuff that you never had any interest in previously ... i.e. stories about itself, the "media culture" that we live in (thanks to them).
We've come full circle, except by some mystery of mass psychology, the place we started from doesn't quite look the same anymore. The levels of self-reference can become quite subtle and confusing, and it is often difficult to discern the line between"news" and " other stuff".
[If you don't believe me, watch Anderson Cooper for a week -- you'll never be sane again. Oh wait, I'm sorry -- I meant "AC360". You know, right after "The Situation Room".]
The Super Bowl is a game. It's a game that is fun even the casual fan to watch. People should watch this game with friends and have fun.
However, the Super Bowl has also become a media monstrosity, and that is sad. That otherwise intelligent people do anything for the sole reason of being advertized to -- as in, watching the Super Bowl, "for the commercials" -- is absolutely fucking nuts and wrong on a lot of levels.
We need an American version of the BBC so bad I get a boner just thinking about it.
|
For the last two weeks, there has been a persistent cloud of negativity hanging over the media's coverage of the event. OK, right off the bat, I will concede the counter-argument to everything I'm about to say -- two weeks is a long time to wait for the Super Bowl.
BUT, it is amazing to me how the media are able to turn the occupational difficulties of their profession (i.e. boredom and difficulty finding good stories) into the "product" that their profession creates and sells. It's quite a racket. I think lawyers are the only other profession that can consistently create work for themselves.
What do I mean? The New York Times' headline for the Super Bowl today is, "Everything's over but the game." Think about that -- everything's over except the whole point of the entire endeavor in the first place.
There are probably 10,000,000 reporters in Detroit right now, all trying to fill column space/air time with "stuff". Of course, there is absolutely no fucking way that you're going to get 14 days of news out of anything, let alone a goddamn football game. So what happens is, the media start reporting "stuff" about how there is no "stuff" to report ... the non-story as story.
24 hour-a-day news was supposed to make us more informed, but it turns out that there just isn't enough stuff to be informed about. (Or at least, informed in the way that the popular media is capable of informing us. If you are really concerned about learning about the world, the local newstand is filled with many fine periodicals.) In order to fill the shelves of the store it built but that nobody really wanted, the media had to start selling you stuff that you never had any interest in previously ... i.e. stories about itself, the "media culture" that we live in (thanks to them).
We've come full circle, except by some mystery of mass psychology, the place we started from doesn't quite look the same anymore. The levels of self-reference can become quite subtle and confusing, and it is often difficult to discern the line between"news" and " other stuff".
[If you don't believe me, watch Anderson Cooper for a week -- you'll never be sane again. Oh wait, I'm sorry -- I meant "AC360". You know, right after "The Situation Room".]
The Super Bowl is a game. It's a game that is fun even the casual fan to watch. People should watch this game with friends and have fun.
However, the Super Bowl has also become a media monstrosity, and that is sad. That otherwise intelligent people do anything for the sole reason of being advertized to -- as in, watching the Super Bowl, "for the commercials" -- is absolutely fucking nuts and wrong on a lot of levels.
We need an American version of the BBC so bad I get a boner just thinking about it.
|
