Professional Documents
Culture Documents
It’s Sensational
by
Brittany
Wooley
Jour
481-‐Ethics
and
Trends
in
News
Media
Clem
Work
9
September
2010
Wooley
2
It’s Sensational
CNN constantly playing in the background and is very much in the know, especially
when it comes to celebrity drama and stories involving the criminal justice system. I
personally do not enjoy prying into the lives of celebrities, so when I awoke one morning
to Lindsay Lohan crying in court about the inhumane punishment she received for
violating her probation, I could not help but gag. Why was this drama receiving lead
story coverage on CNN? I flipped the channel to a few other major news networks, and
unfortunately, the Lohan story was major news in every source I investigated. It even
received print coverage from major newspapers including the New York Times and the
Washington Post. This irritated me. What separated these news sources from tabloids?
To make matters worse, my grandma, mom, cousins, and sisters proceeded to discuss the
story for the next several weeks. Rather than focusing on the societal implications of
family was worried about Lindsay Lohan spending 90 days in jail. The dilemma is not
just within my family; it is a societal issue. This bothered me all summer and triggered
some self-evaluation. What role do I as a journalist have in this distorted view of what
According to the Oxford Journal, the “agenda setting” theory suggests that the
media decides both what issues people think about and how they think about them
(Smith, Twum, and Gielen). If this theory is correct, then journalists’ role in the public’s
focus, and ultimately, knowledge, of the surrounding world is immense. The theory also
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makes the media partially responsible for a misalignment in priorities regarding societal
I read a book this summer by Lynne Rienner Publishers entitled, Tabloid Justice:
Criminal Justie in an age of Media Frenzy. Unfortunately, I do not have access to the
entirety of book here in Missoula for exact quotation in this paper. However, some of the
statistics uncovered in studies reported by the authors are so alarming they stuck with me.
One study showed that more people know the name of the judge presiding over the O.J.
Simpson case than can identify a Supreme Court justice. Even more alarming is that
more people know who JonBenet Ramsey is than those who could point out the Vice
President of the United States. The book also stated that almost every major news
network interrupted the President’s 1995 State of the Union Address to reveal the verdict
The problem is not that the Lindsay Lohan story or the stories mentioned above
are being covered but that major news organizations are prioritizing these stories higher
than more significant news. We live in a time of economic hardship, political unrest,
energy crisis, terrorism, nuclear proliferation, and war. The public needs to focus on
these issues instead of celebrity gossip. In a May 1990 issue of the USA Today reporter
Judy Woodruff said, "Can the world's best democracy, the United States, survive given
the way our free press sometimes functions? Some of us in the media have gotten caught
up in the size of our audience, the profits to be made, catering to short attention spans,
and seeking the sensational. Consequently, we seem to have forgotten something basic --
that we are here to serve the public, to bring them informed judgments about their
While Lindsay got headline coverage, the relisting of the wolves on the
endangered species list, the pull-out of the last combat troops in Iraq, and the continued
bad economic reports were left under-covered. The importance of these world-shaping
events is lost when focus is placed on more sensational and less important news. The
president of the Los Angeles based Bernstein Crisis Management, Jonathon Bernstein,
said, “What’s happened to the media in the past 20 years is what I call National
Enquirization. That is what happens in every paper now.” (Schmelzer) The problem of
more to sell papers than to provide the public with pertinent information.
Problematic Social Modeling?” took an in-depth look into the coverage of the Lindsay
Lohan story. The article looked at a study that concluded that the media focused on
glamorous celebrity images rather than aiming to provide information that could help the
problem of underage drinking and probation violation. The study found that not only is
this not helping the problem, but it is actually making it worse. When teens and young
adults see a glamorous celebrity breaking the law, they are more likely to follow her
example than be turned away from the crime. (Smith, Twum, and Gielen)
described the reasoning behind high profile, sensationalized news increasing societal
problems. He stated, “You get people all of a sudden wanting to be on TV, wanting
money. Everybody assumes their story is worth something in the media and somebody is
going to pay them. It’s that mentality and the presses’ willingness to cater to it that can
Then there is the issue of a rapidly declining confidence in the news media. A
poll by USA Today, CNN, and Gallup found that only 36 percent of Americans believe
news organizations get facts straight. This is a nearly 20 percent decrease from the 54
percent in 1989. A study by the American Society of Newspaper Editors found that 80
percent of the American public said they believe journalists chase sensational stories
because they think it will sell papers, not because they think it is important news.
("Current Problems in the Media") I spoke with my father, Kelly Wooley, and several
people of different majors across campus and found that this was the common consensus.
Wooley stated, “There were several very important stories that should have been the lead
story during the weeks the media obsessed over Lindsay Lohan. Unfortunately, they took
the back burner to a less important story because of the story’s titillation factor. Lindsay
Lohan’s story has its place in tabloid news. It is not serious news and should not be a
director of the media analysis, education, and advocacy organization of women in media
and news (WIMN), Jennifer Pozner, said, “Sensationalism does not help us as news
consumers get the information we need. It’s not reflective of what’s newsworthy, and it’s
with a click of a mouse or a television remote control at any moment. Different news
organizations are fighting for viewers and readers. With the creation of the 24-hour news
cycle, news agencies always have to have something to report, something that will keep
viewers interested. Unfortunately, the stories that attract viewers are often sensational.
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sensationalism to in-court media coverage. The study found that 10 percent of judges, 17
percent of witnesses, and 20 percent of jurors involved in the cases studied were
While in-court coverage can be sensationalized, legal coverage also has many
benefits. According to Tabloid Justice: Criminal Justice in and Age of Media Frenzy,
media coverage of courtroom proceedings increases civic education about the inner
workings of the legal system, raises public awareness of due process by forcing the courts
to behave in the fairest way possible, and boosts overall public confidence. Problems
arise when the media takes the focus away from the issues and direct it to the glamorous
beauty contests. KPAX crime reporter Irina Cates said, “Media coverage in the
courtroom is important because it holds the legal system accountable for the punishment
that is given out. I think it helps with making sure a fair punishment is given without
going overboard. I also think that in a way it helps the victims because they feel like
justice is being served when they see the person who hurt them in the paper or on TV.”
Journalists sometimes feel the need to report sensational news in order to get the
public to pay attention to the important news. Cates said, “I think sometimes it's hard to
avoid sensationalism because you want to make the story exciting, especially when it
comes to court hearings. But sticking to the facts is what helps me to stay away from
Unfortunately, there is no cut and dry answer to the problem. Yes, journalists do
contribute to society’s focus on various events to some extent. However, the public
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wants to be entertained. Finding the line between entertainment and news can be
difficult. The first step to solving the problem is for reporters to go into covering a story
happening in the community, nation, and planet. He/she needs to focus on the facts.
After the stories have been reported, the important news need to be placed first while the
more sensational stories take the back seat. Small changes such as these can leave a big
journalists everywhere.
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Works Cited
"DailySource.org." Current Problems in the Media. The Daily Source, 2010. Web. 1 Sep
2010. <http://www.dailysource.org/about/problems>.
Fox, Richard, Robert Van Sickel, and Thomas Steiger. Tabloid Justice: Criminal Justice
in an Age of Media Frenzy. 2nd ed. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2007. Print.
<http://www3.niu.edu/newsplace/sen.html>.
Schmelzer, Randi. "Sensational Reporting can be Bad News." PR Week 04 Dec. 2007: n.
<http://www.prweekus.com/pages/login.aspx?returl=/sensational-reporting-can-
be-bad-
news/article/99588/&pagetypeid=28&articleid=99588&accesslevel=2&expiredda
ys=0&accessAndPrice=0>.
Smith, Katherine, Denise Twum, and Andrea Gielen. "Media Coverage of Celebrity
<http://alcalc.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/44/3/256>.
Suggested Reading
Modeling?." <http://alcalc.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/44/3/256>.