Picking up where we left off yesterday -- the topic was why nobody cares about Haiti now -- Walt presents the explanation, from Allan Fotheringham's column of 1 August 1994.
"We have more information than we actually want... Whenever there is yet another world crisis the nervous establishment networks dispatch their anchormen immediately to the hotspot. Peter Jennings in a safari suit...
"Constant exposure to the tragedy of others does not make us more stricken, more grieving, more dumbstruck. Thanks to live television, it makes us accept the worst, knowing that next week there will be more...
"Information overload, it is called. A survey taken 20 years back [1974] asked North American television viewers how many TV channels they felt comfortable with, how many they required. The answer came out to seven. [Now] we are in 1994...and a recent survey divined that most viewers feel -- world scoop! -- that about seven channels is all they can, or want to absorb.
"Those of us in the industry of information are killing our consumers with overload. Saturation. Brain dead. What is wanted is quality, not quantity."
Walt adds... My impetus for writing these two posts was an item in the news earlier this week that the human disaster story for next month will be -- wait for it -- Chad. It's another one that most North Americans couldn't find on a map. Hint: try Africa. Apparently millions in that poor country are faced with starvation unless we help. Heard it all before, right?
Then I read Dr. Foth and, just for fun, counted the number of TV channels I watch, out of the hundreds available through the little dish on the roof. The number is -- wait for it -- seven!
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