Let's see. The big news all the way around in local TV and our ever shrinking newspaper concerns, yes, you guessed it. MOVIE STARS! James Gandolfini succumbed to a heart attack in Europe. That is pretty much major news every where. The Sopranos star is being mourned more than just about anyone who recently died because he is a celebrity. And then there is the upcoming premiere of the "Lone Ranger" movie. That was all covered in front page fashion by the Journal (along with a better story about a marmot on Wheeler Peak). The movie stars including Johnny Depp(a great actor) held an hour long press conference yesterday which probably will get more coverage than the Syrian civil war for the next few days. Oh, and then there is my favorite building chatter about Brad Pitt's fight against Zombies in the movie World War Z. I like Zombie movies.
It is all like having the National Enquirer delivered to your front step every day. Or in your local newscast. Really, the media has always done this kind of stuff. But it rarely gobbled up time and space with the regularity it now does. I think we will just have to live with that as the whole world just has an attention span of three minutes. About the time it takes to read a People magazine story during your visits to the bathroom. Like the time it takes to read my blog everyday.
It is all like having the National Enquirer delivered to your front step every day. Or in your local newscast. Really, the media has always done this kind of stuff. But it rarely gobbled up time and space with the regularity it now does. I think we will just have to live with that as the whole world just has an attention span of three minutes. About the time it takes to read a People magazine story during your visits to the bathroom. Like the time it takes to read my blog everyday.
3 comments:
Love those marmots. They whistle like construction workers.
It may not take long to read your blog, but the thought provoking nature of your posts stick with this reader. I was a little surprised the Journal covered the re-investigation of the TWA Flight 800 that may have been struck by a missile. You had to hunt for the story though.
A reader complimenting one of your blog posts awhile back listed as one of the reasons it was good that it was short. I wondered at the time what that signified. You are, really, good a summing things up and I wondered if that was because of your TV background. But what does it mean that longer things just won't get read? I think you characterize the situation nicely.
Around that time the collapse of a garment factory in Bangladesh was high on activist types radar but that story has disappeared.
What are the causes of this? Does no one have time to read and reflect? Is it caused by our economic conditions? Is it cultural? TV has a role. I've noticed that on children's cartoon shows on TV they don't remain on one image for more that a few seconds at a time -- but is TV just adapting to something else?
And are we losing the ability to reflect or the desire?
I'll stop there.
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