2008 Woodie Awards
More news, por favor
Katie Wilson- Lifestyles Editor
Issue date: 3/15/07 Section: Op/Ed
As I carefully selected which gossip, entertainment and fashion magazines to purchase for the plane ride for my spring break trip to Mexico, I realized I was excited I could spend an entire week away from the American chaos we call news. I found myself looking forward to a whole week without hearing about the gossip and drama surrounding the lives of a newly bald Britney or the possibilities of which man is the father of Anna Nicole's baby.
However, to my surprise, I was unable to avoid the "news" concerning neither Spears nor Smith, even in Mexico. On my second morning of vacation, I awoke to an American version of "USA Today" titled "Cancun Today" slipped underneath my hotel room door. The headline of this Mexican-produced newspaper, half-filled with advertisements for things to do in Cancun, read, "Smith finally laid to rest next to her son." An entire page of the four-page news section was devoted to summarizing Smith's life and her funeral, right down to the color of her limousine and the number of people in it. The Smith headliner overshadowed the one to two-paragraph summaries of the "less important" news of President Bush visiting a tornado-devastated Alabama, a bus wreck in Atlanta and the winners of the World Cup downhill. During my stay in Mexico, I even learned that Jared Leto, the lead singer of 30 Second to Mars, broke his nose during a concert.
With that being said, my point is that it was only halfway surprising that even non-American media gatekeepers know which stories to print on the first page to sell newspapers. It was not surprising in that it is predictable which stories will be selling points to American tourists; surprising in that I really expected to feel uninformed of current events in the United States when I arrived home a week later. I hoped to learn more about actual important occurrences in the U.S., but at least I did discover that Kevin Federline took the kids to Vegas and that there is a new penguin surf movie called "Surf's Up" releasing in June.
We have certainly crossed the once-fine line between what is news and what is entertainment, and it is sad that even other countries have learned how to appeal to our interests.
However, to my surprise, I was unable to avoid the "news" concerning neither Spears nor Smith, even in Mexico. On my second morning of vacation, I awoke to an American version of "USA Today" titled "Cancun Today" slipped underneath my hotel room door. The headline of this Mexican-produced newspaper, half-filled with advertisements for things to do in Cancun, read, "Smith finally laid to rest next to her son." An entire page of the four-page news section was devoted to summarizing Smith's life and her funeral, right down to the color of her limousine and the number of people in it. The Smith headliner overshadowed the one to two-paragraph summaries of the "less important" news of President Bush visiting a tornado-devastated Alabama, a bus wreck in Atlanta and the winners of the World Cup downhill. During my stay in Mexico, I even learned that Jared Leto, the lead singer of 30 Second to Mars, broke his nose during a concert.
With that being said, my point is that it was only halfway surprising that even non-American media gatekeepers know which stories to print on the first page to sell newspapers. It was not surprising in that it is predictable which stories will be selling points to American tourists; surprising in that I really expected to feel uninformed of current events in the United States when I arrived home a week later. I hoped to learn more about actual important occurrences in the U.S., but at least I did discover that Kevin Federline took the kids to Vegas and that there is a new penguin surf movie called "Surf's Up" releasing in June.
We have certainly crossed the once-fine line between what is news and what is entertainment, and it is sad that even other countries have learned how to appeal to our interests.
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