Why ‘emo-ing’ the news is unacceptable

RADIO-TV news reports are supposed to be rigorously objective, the better for viewers or listeners to get the unvarnished, undecorated truth—no frills or other distractions allowed—so they can make fact-based judgments on those events’ significance and impact on their lives.

These days, however, that basic requirement is being flouted time and time again by “infotainment” items that make it a point to “emotionalize” or “emo” the news, rather than merely, and objectively, reporting it.

The new trend of “emo-ing” the TV news is now so prevalent that it looks like it’s being done intentionally, with field reporters possibly being instructed to not just get the facts, but also to look for “personal” angles and “kawawa” back stories that can arouse viewers’ and listeners’ emotions and empathy, and grab them where they live and breathe.

Big no-no

This is a big no-no in the news trade, of course, but radio-TV people may feel that the traditional rules for print journalism don’t apply to them, because they’re working in media that are more personal and graphic in nature.

Another contributing factor may be the great popularity of drama and fantasy teleserye, which have become so sensationally successful that the “melodrama mentality” has seeped into other aspects of our lives and entertainment offerings as well.

This includes the increasing number of “dramatized” radio-TV commercials that unreel like mini-teleserye!  If those “dramatized” commercials are here, can the “emo news” trend be far behind?

No, it’s here right now, in fact, and this colored and weepily emotional version of the “news” is fast becoming the preferred and more “interesting” and “involving” mode of presentation—to more enlightened viewers’ and listeners’ great concern.

It’s hard enough making sense of the complicated world we live in as it turns from day to day without having to contend with the distractions of emotional “coloring” and the seductive blandishments of “infotainment.”

How can we analyze the import and impact of day-to-day events correctly when our take on them has been compromised so much by the way that they’re oh, so dramatically, feelingly and sobbingly being reported?

It’s time for people who prefer their news factual and unadorned to make our radio-TV stations realize that they know that they’re being taken on a dead-end “emo” ride—and they want no part of it.

Insignificant

While we’re at it, we should also insist on news reports of truly significant events, not the usual spate of robberies, car accidents, fires, murders, street altercations, etc.

Those insignificant occurrences are being reported on because they’re blood-and-guts stuff, but they don’t individually impinge on our collective lives, so why must we be told that this lady lost her bag to thieves at that market, and she broke down because her bag contained money that would have paid for her grandmother’s cataract operation?!

That’s teleserye stuff, and should have no place on a self-respecting news program, so let’s leave the melodrama to the expert tuggers at heartstrings in our TV networks’ drama divisions and limit our newscasts to reporting the news—and the truth—and nothing but!