Media Matters

By guest blogger Ruby Baresch The other day I noticed that Judy Woodruff, long-time PBS Newshour anchor, looked somewhat different, rather pale? When she announced that she was broadcasting from home, I thought, Aha! Another new visual to get used to. Two or three months ago, when you turned on the television news, you knew you would get, visually, well-dressed presenters sitting companionably in a studio with professional lighting making them look good, if somewhat alike. Guest experts in their own offices, also with good lighting. Reporters in the field who often sent reports via their phones, with occasional glitches in the reception. That was then. Now a news broadcast features possibly an anchor in the studio and everyone else mostly broadcasting remotely, i.e., from home. There is uncertainty as to what we will see and I rather welcome it. From very high end technology, well-defined faces against the light, to others, maybe those on Skype or Zoom, looking

     There are many coronavirus issues that the media have been responding to, but  there is one which this critic found  a bit overlooked, if this is possible. It's the idea of loneliness that many people who shelter - in - place must contend with. A particular "More We Know" Public Service Announcement (PSA) on TV brought this to the forefront when Ted Danson and  Mary Steenburgen suggested," We might be lonely but we are not alone."       Watching films on TV to pass the time seems a common practice, but what's not common is the large amount of recent or semi - recent movies/ TV series about loneliness. At least on NetFlix. Most likely, it's probably just a coincidence, but it could even be the result of our preoccupation with the subject. (No doubt many documentaries will be coming out about our real-life experiences staying at home.)      Consider some  electronic media examples with themes of loneliness, all of them containing outstanding s