Politics, Compartmentalized (anti-intellectualized?)

There is a lot in politics and political coverage that I can (and have) criticized. From the unneeded emphasis on religion to superfluous character bashing, it’s a subject I've come to disdain from over-exposure and general ennui and cynicism. (Oh, hormones)

But there’s been one overarching trend that I’ve noticed in political coverage that is something I have little to no opinion toward. That is, that political coverage—hell, journalism in general—has begun to simplify every issue, every character trait into bite-size, easy to swallow formats. Take CNN’s election website “Election center 2008” for instance. Headed up with a section titled “meet the candidates,” each contender is broken down into his or her essentials: place of birth, current job, spending record, stance on push button issues, poll records, supporters, advisers. . . it’s all there in prettily designed boxes and non threatening portions. The same can be seen in Yahoo’s Election 08 page. Top stories are parsed out from stories about religion, social issues, and opinion an editorial pieces. Everything is categorized, classified, labeled.
Okay, maybe I lied. . . I do have an opinion. (Surprise, surprise.) While on the one hand, easy to read formats could encourage readers to learn the facts, the big picture. On the other hand, too often, readers only get one side of the story. Given the choice to click on what they wish, consumers too often create a self editorialized world of political journalism. Even reading a hard copy of Newsweek magazine, I found myself attracted to only certain displays of my favorite candidate’s faces and quotes. Dying are the sweeping political stories, which focus on the big picture of the entire candidate (or even better, the big picture of the political arena itself.)

Be this a fault in today’s readership or a fault in the field of journalism, I don’t know.

I just know that nobody except for you will read this, Prof Drew, because it’s far too large a block of text. Most readers need shorter statements, more pictures, more colors and a good deal less thought.