' Entertainment can also provide additional clarity to understanding a serious issue. For example, a 'man (or woman)-on-the-street' interview can poignantly highlight the seriousness of the credit crisis in a way that lists of facts and figures cannot. Graphics, compelling photographs, and narrative pieces of reporting can make the higher-level concepts behind a news story more memorable, while a technically 'serious' news story might make little impression and thus do little to educate or empower the public.
Of course, opponents of using entertainment to sell the news would state that the more that entertainment corrupts the news, the less hard news is included in the broadcast. The news becomes about the individual anecdote, rather than the more serious concepts at stake, and merely helping a single human being cannot heal Haiti or New Orleans. Or, the news can easily become so entertainment-focused it simply manufactures bubble gum for the mind, like stories of the antics of Charlie...
And some simply feel that treating the news as entertaining is irreverent and disrespectful, given the serious consequences certain issues can have for people's lives.
While these concerns may be valid, the fact is that most human beings are social animals, and only if a story is made 'personal' and personable will people care about it. Even the most apparently shallow stories, such as Charlie Sheen, can be used to educate the public about mental illness and drug addiction. That is why it is acceptable and sometimes necessary to use entertainment to educate the public in news broadcasts. Instead of directing our energies to complaining about news broadcasts that make use of the techniques of narrative-based, creative storytelling, or feature less-than-serious subject matter, we should instead focus on the need for objective and compelling reporting that educates AND entertains the public at the same time.
Work Cited
NPR Official Website. May 14, 2011.
