News

I was just watching the Daily Show and Al Gore was the guest. It was an old episode that I hadn't seen. Gore was talking about his book The Assault on Reason. In the discussion, he and John Stewart were talking about the blurring of entertainment and news. For example, the degree to which the news media cover the lives of people like Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. And lack of coverage around politics beyond White House press releases. The result is a congress that is more concerned with raising money for 30 second sound bites than it is with debate on its own floor. With this change in debate style and medium, we have lost a lot.
To be fair the irony of talking about the blurring of news and entertainment on the Daily Show was not lost on either of them.
But as I was listening, I thought how I was a good target audience for a news agency willing to explore real global issues and yet I don't watch the news. I'm an educated professional and yet I don't engage with modern news media.
I wonder about this disconnect. I wonder if it is a character flaw of mine, a lack of concern for world affairs. I don't think that I can blame the media entirely. I can't hide behind disenchantment as if it is all their fault. Further, I am certainly not alone. Few people I know are interested, genuinely interested in world affairs.
Personally, I'm not sure if people cared more or less in the past. What is true is that many of us are acutely aware of the gap between world affairs and world interest. I suspect that it has always been there, but that we are now more aware of it. I guess my question is one of causality and direction: Are we growing more or less interested? (I suspect less or static) Are we disinterested because we feel we can't change events, that we are powerless or are we disinterested because we can sense that if we took a real interest we could make a difference and frankly that would take a lot more effort?
I have long suspected that talk shows like Jerry Springer are a modern form of public flogging - a way of confirming morality for the pack. I suppose stories about Paris Hilton are similar. Certainly they take no effort.