October 29, 2007
Non Newsworthlyness is Nonexsitant
What is news? This question has different answers for different people. For some people news might be the latest political updates, for others it might be intacountry relations, for others still it could be some odd or bizarre piece of trivial news, and for others still news could be the fact that Kid Rock get into a brawl at a waffle house (what a random place to start a fight!). News has different connotations for different people. So with that in mind I set out to find a news story that was completely not newsworthy. I had difficulties finding a story that wasn’t news to any one. I found political news stories, that some people might push aside faster then soggy corn flakes on a November morning. Yet they are still news because they have an effect on a wide audience. I found stories about Lindsey Lohan’s drug problem, is this newsworthy? To some people yes, they like to vicariously live through celebrities and knowing one more piece of trivial information about a movie/rock star (both of which do not refer to Lindsey in any way shape or form) helps them to feel how the star feels.
With such a wide audience for news, I can understand why specialized news sources have evolved, this allows people to see the news that they care about, and then they don’t have to deal with the information that’s not important to them. Its hard to classify something as completely not news worthy though. I think the newsworthlyness of an event defiantly depends on location, and closeness of the story. People care about the things that are happening around them, however this makes me wonder how such headlines break nationally. Something that happened on a small town in Idaho is not news to me.
However trivial, useless stories make it into the news, they will continue to remain there until the demand for them ceases, and that’s unlikely to happen any time soon. People like to know things that are interesting to them, and people as a whole are interested in practically everything!
