Too much graphic detail in media

I agree with the widespread view that there was far too much unnecessarily graphic detail shown on television news during the Weatherston trial.

I am becoming sick of the trial-by-television which seems to be occupying a large part of the news.

It reflects the dumbing-down of television. An item becomes news only if there is spectacular footage to accompany it. And, if there isn't any recent footage, we have a pointless piece to camera that adds nothing to our knowledge of an issue to fill the time till the next ad break.

Listen to Checkpoint at 5 pm on National Radio and you'll get up-to-the-minute coverage, with some insightful comment, and then watch the 6 pm television news and you wonder if is being beamed from a different planet.

Brian Edwards makes a timely observation about

an almost macabre media preoccupation with disaster record-keeping. It finds its most unhealthy expression in television news where the “death toll” on the roads, at sea, in the air, through war and natural disaster, is constantly rated against the previous “record” as “the worst (or second or third worst) disaster since … ”

He goes on to say

the television reporting of many disasters is often couched in terms that almost suggest regret that the death toll was not higher: “Two thousand people are reported to have died in the earthquake, but the figure could still rise.” Or: “The death toll from swine ‘flu now stands at X, but is expected to reach record levels”

Read the full story here.