What I learned today – a roughly named new series

11Oct06

 I’ve been meaning to start a “What I Learned Today” feature for awhile now, but I’ve got some free time so here’s the first in what I hope to be a series of many.  I’ll definitely need to work on an improved title.  Here we go!

Dr.  David Mindich visited Grady College on Friday to give a lecture on “Tuned Out” Youth.   His lecture centered around six primary points:

1. More young people are tuned out than ever before
   1. The median viewer age for the news is 60
   2. The Daily Show’s median viewer age is 34
   3. Without an informed populace, decisions are based on hunches
2. It’s neither exclusively the fault of the youth, nor of the media.
   1. The decline of internationalism, sound byte tendency, sensationalism and more is hurting journalism, though every day great journalism still happens
3. Entertainment is a culprit
4. When news tries to out-entertain entertainment, it always fails.
   1. this era is marked not by the fact that few things command our attention, but instead by “inattention to a national conversation”
5. We can change journalism.
   1. Offer more road maps
   2. Avoid talking down to the audience
6. We need to look at a world outside of journalism.
   1. We must build a news and political culture focused around awareness and activism
   2. We must focus on media literacy: stop breeding cynics and loyalists.

I enjoyed the lecture, and Dr. Mindich definitely offered a well-rounded explanation of the causes for the move away from news awareness, as well as visible effects.  My only complaint was that there wasn’t much discussed in the way of practical solutions, though time limited further discussion.   Obviously a vibrant activism and awareness of news is essential to democracy, but how can that be established when there is so much media saturation and choice?

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