Media's Mission: Entertain or Inform?

Recently, PowerPointSamurai and others complained about the endless news coverage of Anna Nicole Smith that seemingly trumped “more important” headlines. Facing criticism that the news was over-reporting minor news on Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Anna Nicole Smith and other celebrities, the Associated Press went as far as to quietly ban any stories on Paris Hilton for a week.

Although it seems like lead headline news items – having bigger headlines and pictures – would capture the most traffic, that does not seem to be the case. I have noticed that CNN’s top headlines are rarely their most popular headlines. For example, the headline story at the time I wrote this was Large quake off Japan kills 1, injures scores but the most popular story listed was NASCAR’s Car of Tomorrow gets first test. I decided to observe the news for a while to see if the headline stories matched the most popular stories. Here are the most popular stories (Monday – Friday) from the last two weeks:

• *March 12 – ’World’s most valuable car’ fails to sell
• *March 13 – ‘October Road’ already winner
• *March 14 – Court: Dying face marijuana charge
• *March 15 – Disney gets black princess
• *March 16 – Decision in police groom shooting

• *March 19 – not reported
• *March 20 – Father: Lost Scout had planned to hitchhike home
• *March 21 – Prosecutor wants death penalty for boy’s slaying
• *March 22 – Actor ‘sick of being a boy’
• *March 23 – ‘Titanic’ stars DiCaprio, Winslet reuniting

Although the top stories change throughout the day, as far as I know, the only stories listed above to be featured as the headline story for at least part of the day were the groom shooting story on March 16 and the lost scout on March 20. Most of these articles were the most popular despite receiving a less prominent position on CNN’s homepage. For example, on the most recent day observed, I did not see the DiCaprio/Winslet story listed as a lead story on CNN.com, but saw two others which were much less popular: House passes spending bill with Iraq deadline (#4) and Diplomats meet over Iranian seizure of British sailors (#8).

News organizations are companies that are ultimately driven by the need to make money. This money comes from advertisers and the advertisers pay more if their ad is seen by more people. The financial motivation to publish "popular" stories over "important" stories is clear. Based on the small sample above from CNN.com, it appears the public has decided what stories are most important to them; they read the news to be entertained rather than informed. What ethics, then, should drive publishers and editors when they decide what stories to publish and promote?