Give the people what they want. Or …

I don’t watch the news. Because I don’t learn anything useful from it.

But someone told me that this morning’s news was about the storms we had overnight. So the lightning that I saw at 5:00am was in fact real. Luckily, we have some commentary this morning about how we nearly had weather conditions that could have been exciting to talk about.

I don’t blame the media for this drivel. Weather excites people. Charlie Sheen excites people. The news has to deliver something people want to see, or … Or they won’t watch it? Kind of a losing battle – give them dreck because they want it or give them substance that they won’t watch. Anyway, not really the media’s fault, the public’s appetite for useless content. I’m just glad the media manages to sneak some substance in there when they can.

But what if … What if the media could bring the same kind of excitement to local innovation, culture and community that they can bring to weather and sports?

There is

so

much going on in this city that’s truly exciting. Instead of “Did you get woken up by thunder?” or “How about those Bucks?” as obligatory smalltalk, how do we use the local media to rally around what we *could* make this city about? (BTW, my vote is “Barrier Free Columbus” – an environment of “can-do” whether you’re starting a business, getting an education, finding a job, a home, a support network,…. there is a structure here to remove barriers to whatever you need to do.)

It’s not the media’s fault that people gravitate toward loud noises and shiny objects. But I challenge them to put a sheen on local progress. It’s all marketing, you know.

Advertisement