Hello readers,
Isn’t it funny how technology changes our lives and our minds? We get a new piece of equipment, like a cell phone or a hammer or a computer or an iPod, use it for a while, and then we think we need it.
This morning I read an article in the Lumberjack, the NAU student newspaper, titled, “NAZ Today fills void left by Channel 2 News” I quote from the article:
On Aug. 8, Charlie Hicks, NAU professor of electronic media and adviser for NAU Live!, read an article in the Arizona Daily Sun titled “Channel 2 News Unplugs,” informing him that KNAZ, the only news television program serving northern Arizona, would be closing due to falling advertising revenue and rising costs.
“Immediately when I found that out…I thought we needed to do something,” Hicks said. “It’s unacceptable to not have a television news broadcast in a town of 60,000.”
The last line is the most important: “It’s unacceptable to not have a television news broadcast in a town of 60,000.”
Ummm… to put things in perspective, remember that a long time ago, there was no TV news.
And a longer time ago, there was no TV. And people got along just fine. Some people still get along pretty well without a TV. Like me, for example. I’ve never owned my own TV and hope I never do. Mostly because I’m heavily influenced by the ideas of Neil Postman. One excellent book in particular by him that I love is called “How to Watch TV News.” It’s all about how the news as communicated through the medium of television is mostly entertainment designed to get ratings, and it distorts people’s views of reality, and it distorts people’s ideas about what is important and what is valuable.
So I disagree with Charlie Hicks. I don’t think northern Arizona needs its own TV news.
Sincerely,
Telemoonfa
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