WINNERS OF FLUFF: (MEDIA CRITQUE #1)

     WHAS11 News: a local television news broadcast that seems to find their entertainment IN entertainment, rather it's a progression in trying to get viewers, reeling those in, to add to their "large audience"  and of course to get the weekly paycheck. News to them is like a story on Britney Spears shaving her head twice: No Relevance. One would like to  think that these news broadcasts have the intentions of only providing the MOST important information that will actually cause some action and awareness in the community. There is nothing better than turning on the 8:00 morning news and hearing about a man who was saved by the infamous social media site: Facebook.

     The news story titled: Man says local Facebook page saved his life by Shay McAlister, really hit home for a lot of people in the Louisville area who find Facebook as a therapy session with these "online personalities" that could potentially stalk each other but that thought never crossed the mind of Brandon Hold...again the man who was saved by: FACEBOOK. This 27 year old homeless man decided that he would use the free wifi at the Taco Bell on  New Cut Road to talk about his situation and how hard it has been for him after loosing his job. He says: "I’m in shorts and it’s extremely cold. I’m hungry and I can’t bring myself to ask a stranger in person for help. I am so ashamed to be this way." How compelling and

heart-warming...NO! This story is all sorts of wrong. There are millions of people in this nation, around the world, who are homeless and each individual is not getting a news story about how they were cold and wearing jean shorts: IT'S NOT NEWSWORTHY.

     This is a news story that requires a lot of argument and defending to pass as something that should have been posted online under the "headline" section of the website...which is clearly not practical being that it isn't a story that should've been reported or even questioned on. This is a "glance" article not a "read" article. According to the Ten Elements this is not important nor interesting and it's a filler spot for something that could be news. The news broadcast (WHAS11) is not being loyal to its subscribers and its audience at home, this is a story that should be put towards the end, not a headline because it's not worthy of an individual story, and sadly, more than half of the state of Kentucky doesn't care that ONE homeless man was "saved" by Facebook because one: he was living, two: he wasn't dying, and three: he was only homeless for a week. That is why Kentucky is the 49th un-happiest state.


http://www.whas11.com/story/news/local/2015/10/19/man-says-local-facebook-page-saved-his-life/74240488/