For this week's post, I'm going to stick to a pretty simple observation. At my internship, I've recently been given the task of sorting through the morning newspapers and picking out some of the more interesting business stories. And of course, this means that I spend a lot more time than I normally would, flipping through the Wall Street Journal, the SF Chronicle, and the SF Examiner - because let's be honest, I rarely pay for a newspaper when I can browse the news on the internet for free. In any case, I was particularly struck by what I found in the Examiner...
Aside from the cover story being something about a dog-killing artist (that's an entirely different discussion in itself), I also noticed that the sports section seemed to dominate the paper. The Examiner is a fairly short newspaper to begin with, but when you take into consideration the amount of space that is used for sports, it leaves little room for the rest. Compared to the one page dedicated to business, and the one page dedicated to world news, there are a total of SIX sports pages. And I understand the undying love that America has for football, but at the end of the day, is that more important than the happenings in Libya or the 2012 U.S. presidential election??
What is more important for American journalists to report? Do they have an ethical duty to devote more time, energy, and space to world affairs? What ethical principles go into the Examiner's decision to favor the sports section?
I'm betting plenty of content analysis exists confirming your quick take. It's particularly interesting to take a half-hour 11 pm local news show and break it down to the second. My impression is that sports has become even more important to the news bottom line as readers abandon "hard copy."
ReplyDeleteI've always wondered what section makes the most money for papers...this could directly relate to its size.
ReplyDeleteGood question, qroth. Back in the day it was classifieds because they were uninterrupted by those pesky news/feature stories the regular advertisers wanted to be next to - unless they were knocking your eyes out with a full page or two facing pages, the fabled "double truck" ad.
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