Thursday, June 9, 2011

If only big media shared small media values

Brian will banish himself to the basement or flee the house entirely before he would ever be subjected to an episode of The Antiques Roadshow or even five seconds of the local news. His aversion to the Roadshow is a mystery. But if he hates it the way I hate game shows, who can blame him for his abrupt departures? On the other hand, his animated grumblings about the “news” are easily triggered for a reason. Here are the teasers from WCCO yesterday:

Little Dominique makes a horrible discovery in the alley…

A zoo surprise! A Mexican wolf on the loose…

...What you need to know about sunscreen…


This MADtv clip is hardly an exaggeration.

Comparatively, MTN, the Minneapolis public access station, is far more useful. Who else is covering things like the 2011 Twin Cities Sustainable Communities Conference and making these resources available on the web? Instead, it’s murder, sports and weather with a dash of reality TV promos and a helping of product placements from the mainstream media. It’s hard not to imagine what the potential of our media infrastructure holds for building a strong sense of community and solving real problems, if only the resources were used for such an aim. Clearly MTN is making a stab at it.

1 comment:

  1. Not to mention the mainstream media is obsessed with Sarah Palin, and anything titilating, like Weiners weiner. I think you will have a long wait to see a program about sustainable communities, although ABC and Dianne Sawyer have been doing things like made in America, and actually a museum because of the program, have been acquiring all souveniers made in America and they don't cost that must more either. Main stream media and I am talking ABC NBC CBS are mainly an extention of People magazine, with a couple of disasters thrown in. I miss David Brinkly and Chet Huntly, and you probably don't even know who they are. Now if they could figure in recycling with Weiner, you might have something.

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