Things I Don’t Like About Television, Episode 13: Network News

Network news is a necessity and a bane. Viewers need to be exposed to local, national, and world news as well as basic human interest stories. Television is the perfect medium for that since it still reaches so many people and it’s easy to digest.

Let’s just say that “Network news” consists of local and national outlets for the purposes of this post. That said there are a number of problems with these programs.

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Network News Is Mostly Fluff

A problem with network news is how it tries to condense information into half-hour installments. Bill Maher talked about this in 2015 when discussing the story about how Brian Williams lost his credibility.

Maher was mostly right and much of what he said has been said before. What’s more is that it’s impossible to fit so much news — on local, national, and worldly levels — into a relatively small amount of time. More time is taken up by commercials and segments for the weather, traffic, health, sports, and entertainment.

Finding Inspiration from Other Bloggers

Yesterday, my Blogging 101 “classmates” and I were asked to post on at least 4 blogs where we had never posted before. One of the posts I specifically pointed to was entitled, Who am I and why am I here? by Ameena’s Musings. I want to point out this post again today since it really stood out to me.

What Stood Out about This Post?

Ameena’s Musings writes about her experiences and will publish posts based on poetry.

The post in question features a tersa rima poem after a very thoughtful description. Not only was the poetry beautiful, but the description also contained a number of important messages in it.

For me to be truly happy, to attain the magnitude of happiness I desire – I need to learn more, develop more, have an impact in the world.

I’ve spent a whole lot of time thinking about a certain decision, doubting myself over and over – well maybe not doubting but more of fear of failure.

The bolded parts are true about me, as hard as it is to admit. The first part I’ve bolded are along my thoughts; in particular, I would like to make an impact in the world. The last part, the fear of failure, is especially true in terms of my own art.