27 June 2016

“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open. “            Jawaharlal Nehru

In the past the TV news was considered a loss leader, getting people to watch a particular network so the viewer would hopefully stay on that station to watch the profitable programs that followed. In recent years the news has been seen as more of a profit center. Because of this profit center philosophy, the corporations that own the media networks insist on getting as many viewers as possible to watch the news on their network. This means that the most sensational stories are the only ones that get much attention on the news.

These stories often are driven by fear. A good example is the attention to airline accidents. For every 100 people that die on commercial flights, there are 46,000 people that die in auto accidents (NTSB statistics). More people fear flying than fear riding in a car. One of the reasons for the greater fear of flying than the fear of riding in an automobile, despite statistics to the contrary, is that airline accidents are reported on the news much more than auto accidents. Since more people die at a time in an airline accident, the news of an airline accident is more sensational, attracting more viewers. Everyday happenings don’t get as much news coverage as sensational happenings.

Unlike auto accidents, everyday happenings are more likely to be positive than the sensational things that the news media reports. If a major city has major air quality issues we might hear about it on the news. But the news does not report that there has been a steady decline in air pollution in the United States. “Sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide levels have dropped more than 75 percent since the 1960s, and particulates are down more than 50 percent since the 1950s” (Earth Report 2000). Compared to the old days of burning coal to heat most houses in urban areas, the pollution in major cities is obviously better. In general, something is rarely newsworthy unless it is negative.

Keeping our eyes open can mean that we need to do a little research to get an objective view of what is going on in the world. The world of the news often replaces our own common sense and often replaces an objective view of what is really happening in the world. Keeping our eyes open means we need to go beyond the news in defining what the world is like. We need to have our eyes open to the positive normal things in our life as well as the mostly negative sensational things in the world.