For more than 75 years people have been “staying tuned” to find out what is going on. The first radio newsreel, The March of Time, debuted on March 6 in 1931. The show, associated with Time magazine, featured dramatizations of news events, complete with music, sound effects, and a stable of actors to impersonate real news figures. There are times when you would swear they are still impersonating the news itself. In addition, theaters included newsreels and travelogues along with the film entertainment.
The whole idea of “news” is that someone who was there is telling you what happened. It doesn’t matter if it is Homer reporting on the Trojan War, the jester going from court to court to relay the goings on elsewhere, or the broadsheet posted on a printers shop window for someone literate to read to the crowd. Finding out what is going on has always been a pursuit of the curious.
Now the MSM is becoming more than radio, TV, and Newspapers. Learning to sift your way around the internet can be a full time job as to whom to believe and when. Modern news is trying to come to terms with millions of contributors all with access to a keyboard. In the chase for ratings, networks are turning more and more to the sensational. On line is filled with “click bait” to gather more and more eyes, while people are searching on line for all the “I was there” reporters with their You Tube videos, Substack writers, and podcast recordings.
