Generational Gasp

Posted by Cynical Sarah on April 13, 2007

There are all sorts of reasons to worry about war and the environment and making the world a better place. One of the predominant reasons people give, however, is that we need to make a better world for out children, because, after all, the children are our future.

I’m starting to wonder, though, what the older generation must think of the “children” and what they’re going to do with this better world we’re supposed to be working toward.

I think if I was an 80-year-old, I’d be just a tad bit worried.

I recently realized that I know more about the personal life of Britney Spears and Brangelina’s day-to-day life than I do about what’s going on with the War in Iraq or some of the big-ticket issues in Congress.

That’s pretty much the way it is with most people my age, or even a few years older, and definitely younger as well. A larger percent of the younger generation can tell you which celebrities had plastic surgery this week than can tell you what diplomatic work President Bush is currently working on.

It must be horrifying to watch for the older generation whose lives seem to revolve around politics and real news … and who have no clue who Lindsay Lohan even is.

We gasp when we hear the news that the celebrity flavour of the week has dumped his or her latest love interest or when they end up in rehab. But when we hear about President Bush’s policies on Iraq, or the environment, or gay marriage, we just sigh and shake our heads at the dumb man the nation managed to vote into office twice.

Meanwhile our grandparents and parents are gasping at the news of the billions we’ve spent on the war in Iraq and the War on Terrorism or the civil liberties that seem to be disappearing in the name of “national security.” They reserve their sighing for the pantiless antics of starlets out on the town, wondering what this world has come to.

Realizing the difference and how ridiculous it is that I don’t really know what’s going on in the real world doesn’t really mean I’m going to change though.

You could say that’s another problem with my generation – we’re lazy and pretty much avoid things that might be difficult if it doesn’t really mean that much to us to begin with. That’s where changes in the media could help. They’ve got to make it a little easier for us to focus on what’s important.

What was the top news story for most of this week? Anna Nicole Smith’s autopsy results. They came out on Monday, but it’s been the talk of the online news all week. The only thing that came close to topping it for media attention was the announcement that Britney and K-fed have settled their divorce.

Of course, the media outlets will just say they’re catering to what the people want to read about. That’s also just another way of saying they’re bowing to the advertising money since advertisers pay more when they know more people are going to be looking at their ads because of the content around it. It’s not the gasps of the retirees that sell papers and magazines anymore, it’s the gasps of the younger generation, the future subscribers.

There could be a lot of finger pointing on each side – us at the media, and the media at us – but in the end the media has the power. To steal a line from Spiderman, “With great power comes great responsibility.”

The reason we learn in journalism school about integrity and maintaining neutrality when presenting a story is because the media has a lot of power to influence the public. What a news source prints or broadcasts can change the way people think about issues.

When the media focuses on celebrities just because they know it’s what people will read and what will sell papers, they’re also giving us the message that it’s ok that we don’t care about politics and world news because celebrity news is more important.

If the media won’t live up to its responsibility, I guess that means its up to us to set things right. Gasp! I know; it means doing a little work ourselves and taking on responsibility for the world.

We have to start caring and paying attention to the world news around us, and make the celebrity news secondary again. After all, someday we’ll be the “older” generation and have children who we want to leave a better world to.

- Sarah L. Polson

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