It seems the mainstream media just does not put the effort into writing quality pieces it used to.
On Oct. 16 I received five different text messages from CNN about a little boy who was supposedly floating around in a balloon. As it turns out he was not, and all five text messages had something factually wrong with them.
My issue is not with receiving the messages. After all, I did sign up for them. My problem is with the shoddy journalism CNN produced. The information they had at the time was correct, but the way it was written was atrocious.
Message one read, “a six-year-old boy is believed to be stuck in a balloon floating in the Colorado sky.” Pretty straightforward writing, but still poorly written. The message gave no details about the story. It gave no real emotion. It certainly did not want to make me go to CNN and read the story.
The second and third messages both revolved around the fact the boy was not in the balloon. Great news, but I still don’t care.
Finally the last message read something like “boy thought to be in balloon’s father charged by police.” This message made no sense to me. Why was the man charged? What was he charged with? It left me with a series of questions.
The goal of utilizing this new era of technology is to bring the reader back to the website to read the full story. CNN regularly fails to do that with their texts.
Today the media has multiple ways of disseminating information to the public. There are e-mail updates, iPhone applications, tweets, teasers, and yes, text messages.
I am all for new methods of getting information but not at the cost of good journalistic writing. It’s time we, the media, embraced this age and instead of trying to create a new way of doing things, we need to bring the current working method to the future.
It’s no secret the future success of the media lies in the online world, but it needs to grow, not try and take on an entirely new identity. Instead of sending messages containing 10-word dribbles, send the story’s actual lead. That’s what a lead is designed for anyway, to inform quickly and without question.
For now I will continue to subscribe to CNN’s text message updates, but when I get a text stating ‘Cat jumps off building in alleged burglary’ I just won’t care.