Newsworthiness
Posted: January 22, 2009 Filed under: Society | Tags: Media 2 CommentsI have with me today, a copy of yesterday’s Star newspaper. In print. And I don’t quite understand the logic behind their arranging the news articles the way they did.
On page N3, which is basically the first page behind the cover, is THIS piece of news about two Malaysian Muslim artistes pleading not guilty to khalwat.
On page N26, is THIS piece of news about the Altantuya murder case, where Azilah says he had no reason to kill her, and saying that it would have been a “stupid job”.
Comparing the two, there are several similarities. For one, they are both court cases. Both are pleading “not guilty”. And both are news involving Malaysians.
But somehow or other, the good people in the Star have decided that the news about two artistes being charged for close proximity is worthy of being on the 3rd page of the newspaper, whereas news about someone pleading not guilty to a murder charge is only worthy for a position in the 26th page.
Could it be that nowadays, we are more interested in whether a couple of artistes committed khalwat than we are in whether someone committed murder (and of the most brutal kind)?
Could it be that we (or our media) have our priorities the other way around?
Or maybe, I could be all wrong, and it actually doesn’t matter which page a news article is on, as long as it’s in there?
firstly, 2 words : sex sells.
besides, the big difference in the 2 stories is this : the 2 artistes are expendable while the
the personalities, real or implicated, in the murder trial may not be.
furthermore, we all know the Star’s publishing permit is reviewed annually.
finally, three words : toe the line.
Michelle,
I’m assuming you got hold of the hard copy by accident… because I can’t imagine you actually asking somebody to buy it for you 😉
Itu kira okay… kalau you baca Harian Metro (which I sometimes forced to do because my wife buys it), cerita artis memang kat the front pages lah.
Happy Lunar New Year. Hope you collect plenty of those red packets.
__________
You’re right. My sister took it off of her MAS flight back to NZ. 🙂
Happy holidays to you too.