TV as Public Policy: The Evolution of American News Consumption and Infrastructure

Some of the big stories that are missed in the American television, is the American television itself, as a medium for disseminating news. When I was going through grad school and working as a journalist, 60 million Americans watched the so-called supper hour news every night: wow, shared experience!

Today it’s 20 million, and they are all over 55 or 60 years of age. You can take a look at the commercials to see what they are selling to that demographic. 

Reduced Attention Spans and Changing Landscape of Political Engagement

Modern viewers have notably shorter attention spans, influenced by the rapid pace of content delivery. You can hear Lester Holt saying: “We’ll be back in 30 seconds or 60 seconds.” As if it were more than a minute, people would just lose their minds. This shift raises critical questions: Where are people getting their news now? What constitutes acceptable journalism today? 

What is an acceptable means of hosting a town hall with a presidential candidate, I think, have changed American politics, and that’s worth expounding upon.

Traditional media no longer monopolizes these platforms. Social media and digital news outlets have become prominent, altering the landscape of political communication and engagement. This change impacts how candidates reach voters and how voters interact with political information.

The Inefficiency of Modern “Things”

We can draw a parallel between American politics and the expansion of the US interstate highway system. In the 1950s, the interstate highway system was designed for evacuation before for moving across the country. Because Eisenhower as a soldier had taken weeks to get across the country. It took 13 days to get an army truck from factories to a port in Baltimore or elsewhere on the East Coast.

Now, guess what? We now have a better highway system in the US, and we don’t need to evacuate the cities that couldn’t be evacuated. It takes 24 hours to evacuate a million people, very impractical. The current focus on expanding highways seems outdated. So why is this perpetual motion machine of using the gas tax to expand highways, make more Clover leaves, make more Lanes, more divided highways? 

The current focus on expanding highways seems outdated. Evacuating cities via highways remains impractical, as it can take 24 hours to evacuate just a million people. The perpetual investment in highways, driven by the gas tax, continues to prioritize more lanes and complex interchanges. However, this approach overlooks the potential benefits of investing in alternative transportation systems like high-speed rail or even low-speed rail.

Rethinking our Investment 

It’s time to question why we persist with this model and reconsider our approach to these questions. Redirecting funds from highway expansion to developing efficient rail systems could offer numerous advantages, including reduced traffic congestion, lower environmental impact, and improved connectivity between cities. Thus, I believe that by re-evaluating the things we invest our energy in, we can create a more informed public and a better-connected nation.

For more insights into communication management and political analysis, follow us on X (Twitter), LinkedIn and on YouTube.