Grade the News. It was only five days, but I probably won’t ever be able to read a newspaper the same way again. Getting up in the morning just isn’t what it used to be. Before, the mystique surrounding that morning’s paper would always give me a reason to look forward to getting up. What amazing news story would be today’s headline? How would I be affected by the incoming flow of information? Then came John McManus and his journalism critiquing program. That is when my age of media innocence came to an end.

Grade the News was simple. Take a local newspaper and a score card; fill out the different types of stories on the front page, number of quotes, and newsworthiness; total up the results. It only took a short while before I (and most of the beginning journalism class) got the gist of the process.

Some may complain journalistic integrity cannot be scored with such a primitive method. Many factors are at play in the news, and it is impossible to gauge all of them. However, we still got the basic idea. This is when I began to read news differently, and not just in class.

As I was doing at school, I found myself separating the front page articles into topics: economy and business, education, politics, human interest, etc. I had to count the number of quotes and note the gender of the source. I was rating article quality based upon its knowledge impact. My unconscious assessment had begun to turn breakfast into another part of the school day. Grade the News was slowly taking over my news reading life.

Stories that I had once found entertaining I now regarded as a waste of time. If they did not contain important and powerful information, what was the use in reading them? Now I saw the faults in our paper. How was I to read in peace if I couldn’t go one page without mentally judging and scoring what had been written down?

This is when I began to see the thin line between journalism and entertainment. Depending on one’s point of view, articles can often swing either way. The author has a major responsibility in writing his or her news stories. He or she must provide significant information to the reader while still selling newspapers. This is where capitalism and journalistic integrity can clash.

An advertiser will pay more to a newspaper that has a large reader-clientele and diversity. Newspapers know that with an eye-catching and interesting front page, more readers are likely to glance at the headline and possibly pick the paper up. It seems that news as entertainment is starting to become a larger problem in the U.S. Some journalists are even compromising their honor and their jobs by creating false sources and facts to make their stories more appealing. Isn’t it time we take a step back and look objectively at what the media is turning into?

Personally, I only subscribe to a select few publications I find interesting and informative enough to take time to read. After McManus tallied up our project results, I began to wonder if even the magazines and papers I was loyal to were exchanging newsworthiness for entertainment. After analyzing articles from these, I noticed that some stories were more for amusement and distraction than they had initially appeared to be.

It may be difficult to stop the media from becoming largely a source of entertainment, but steps can be taken to contain the problem. Journalists and editors alike should ask themselves if they are giving up the core ideas and principles of working for a news company by writing more about human interest items than about significant news topics. The media must inform the people without putting profit as the premier goal. If we can prevent organizations from being in the business only to make money, the quality of journalism could rise. What I know for sure is that from now on, I’ll be reading my news with a grain of salt.