We\'re getting away from this article/issue, and into a discussion of media, but basically the media is dependant on three things. Time/Place/Audience. If it\'s unusual in one or two it makes the news, in all three, it makes the news in a big way.
Time: Simple, What was normal 50 or 500 years ago isn\'t today. Society changes rapidly these days, and even year to year, based on events, it can change.
Place: If someone murders a child in smalltown, Kentucky, it\'s unusual. In some parts of the world, unfortunately, dozens or hundreds of children are being murdered every day, for a variety of reasons.
Audience: Perhaps the most subjective but also the most important. The news must be unusual to the people you show it to. A sucicide bomber is a footnote to an audience that is detached from both the victims and the perpetrators, but a major issue if it happens in your city (to your family, fiends, society, nation).
It may be an inditement of modern journalism, but like most other industries, they are out to make money, and that invovles maximizing viewer interest and participation. Very few North Americans would watch a three hour show detailing the daily deaths (including biography, backround, and analysis) of people in Iraq, but they\'ll watch a three hour special about a \'possible\' rapist close to home (Jon Mark Karr anyone?). Very few iraquis will watch a three hour special on Tom Cruise\'s baby, or the latest hollywood fashions, but they\'ll watch three hours of religious discussion on the differences between Sunni and Shiite muslims. It\'s not to say the lives of people in another location are less valuable, or even that it\'s \'right\', but it is the way it is for a reason, and you need to understand and accept that before you complain about it or try to change it.
