Tuesday, March 27, 2012

"Brush With Fame" Journalism

There's an odd phenomenon locally where newspapers (and to some extent television news) run stories to the effect of, "Someone that used to be from here did something." The, "something" can be as far removed as being an assistant to the assistant to the valet of someone that used to be kind of famous thirty years ago. I'm not exaggerating. Sometimes the local connection is so distant it ends up being a person that was born in Nebraska, but moved when they were seven months old-brush with fame! I guess the point is to somehow make the state seem relevant outside of Ag circles, but sometimes the reports are outright absurd. I never remember this sort of thing in Illinois or Massachusetts, but perhaps it is more common than I realise. Maybe a sort of, "local kid does good", story sells papers (OK sells advertising on websites) but it does really come across as , "Here you rubes, read about someone that got out!"

Does the media do this sort of thing where you live?

1 comment:

Raymond said...

Yes, something similar happens here in Suckramento. Er, Sacramento. Whenever some big story occurs in, usually, the Bay Area (San Fran and surrounding; ~90 miles away), Sacto TV news always tries to link this city to the event by some obscure thin connection. And in so doing, always try to make Sacto appear as important, or the event as important, here as there. But not by a longshot in reality. Ugh. How did I end up here?