Documentary: "Feeding the Beast: The 24 hr News Revolution"

[GreenPartyVoter]

"The documentary shows a comical scene - on-camera reporters reading and trying to digest a U.S. Supreme Court decision on the 2000 presidential election - to illustrate how images are transmitted more quickly than reporters can interpret them.

"You get the impression that you're being told what's going on, that you're experiencing it in real time," Ellerbee said. "But you don't really know what's going on. It just looks good."

Two effects of 24-hour news are really counterintuitive. As noted by CNN's Christiane Amanpour, a medium built on visual images has essentially become dominated by talking heads.

Minor stories become major through overexposure, Ellerbee said.

"Many of us thought the global would become local with the advent of 24-hour news," she said. "Instead, it's the other way around. So that Laci Peterson, which is a tragic story to her family but a local story, becomes a tragic national story."

http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20040215/D80NQLB80.html