Nicky Watson's Coverage
2007-12-03 16:01:00.0
AUTHOR: Denise Krum
Nicky Watson lost her dog last week. It was on TV One's Close Up last Tuesday night, and in the NZ Herald ‘Sideswipe’ column on Thursday, which printed the following:
"Nicky Watson lost her chihuahua. Well, after numerous clips of Nicky nearly falling out of various dresses followed by clips of Nicky wandering around day and night with torch in hand calling out for her little lost pet, the interviewer finally sat down for a little heart-to-heart with Ms Watson. Recounting her tale of woe Nicky, voice strained with overuse and emotion, says, 'I must have called his name a million times', to which the interviewer kindly responds, trying to empathise: 'You're hoarse.' 'No', replies Nicky sadly, 'my dog'."
After my laughter subsided, I realized something incredulous. Ms Watson was holidaying in the Coromandel and the missing dog incident unfolded there. TV camera crews drove all the way to Coromandel to report Ms. Watson calling out to her dog on the beach – can you believe it?!
Reading and writing are no longer big factors in how we engage with the world anymore [hoarse/horse!]. We are increasingly, and perhaps dangerously, solely relying on TV to give us our news, tell us what are the important things we should know about, and even form our points of view.
The “Nicky lost her dog:” breaking news coverage highlights how ridiculous and superficial this “media reality” has become. When TV chooses to chase a chihuahua, we had better take a harder look at where we are heading don’t you think? Is it possible that we have become too complacent about TV news coverage in our image saturated world?