I Have Sensational(ised) News

I recently saw a newspaper headline declaring: GUN VIOLENCE A GLOBAL EPIDEMIC.

Why is everything an epidemic? I wondered. Not that I don’t take violence - least of all, gun violence - seriously, but surely this propensity to paint every issue in melodramatic terms is counter-productive? Not that I expect the ratings addicted media will concern itself overly much about this, but is anyone paying attention to the effect of this tendency toward sensationalism?

Everything is an “epidemic”: guns, obesity, drugs, porn. You name it, society is apparently up to its communal gills in one pandemic or another. And that’s not including the real diseases.

To be sure, these are all substantial issues, and deserve our attention. However, doesn’t describing them in such drastic terms only serve to desensitise the public to both their gravity and urgency? The more a matter is described as an “epidemic”, the more susceptible it is to the law of diminishing returns: while it may shock initially, we eventually get used to it, and the message loses its power.

It is this diminishing return of shock value that likewise explains the manic feeding frenzy the media throws itself into whenever anything attention grabbing - from natural disasters to wars - occurs. This use - and abuse - of language destroys our understanding of the gravity of an issue, and the lessons we need to draw from it: what it says about our humanity, and the dignity of the human person.

Likewise with the “celebrity rags”. Everything is a “shock” or a “secret” or a “shame”. Sometimes, it’s all three: a shocking secret shame. Honestly, you’d think the subjects of these agony pieces lived their whole lives with their heads stuck up their patoots. I mean, what else could explain every little drama in their life being a “shock”?

I’m sorry if I sound cynical, but the fact that Celebrity X had a boob job that that went wrong is not a “tragedy”. A “tragedy” is when 100,000 people die from preventable causes. The situation in the Middle East is a “tragedy”. Third World poverty - hell, poverty anywhere - is a “tragedy”. Celebrity Y’s predilection for transsexual prostitutes isn’t a “tragedy”, a “shock”, or a “shame” - it’s actually just none of anyone else’s business.

Here’s hoping we learn to see the wood for the trees, and start noticing the humanity beneath the headlines.

Talk to you soon,

BB