This was something I was thinking about a few minutes ago. Before I go on further, please don't get me wrong, the news of Cleo Smith's discovery is great news and deserves to receive national coverage. The fact that she was discovered alive after 19 days is beyond incredible. It's a complete understatement to say that the news of her discovery is totally out of the ordinary, especially when you consider that unfortunately, the vast majority of child abductions have a very different final outcome.
When I first heard the news on i98fm as I was on my way home from work, I instantly presumed the worst; that they had found her remains. We become so desensitized to bad news that we instantly expect the worst to occur. So you can understand why the networks are running with this story. It's a national story, everyone is talking about it in one way or another, and most importantly for the networks, it's a sensationalist story which draws eyeballs to their dwindling audience base.
However, when you think about just how extensively the media has covered the story over the past couple of days, it really makes you wonder how much of it is due to the circumstances we have been living with in 2020/2021, or the fact that the news story itself is more important than the other political and societal issues? Would Cleo Smith's discovery be as extensively covered in the media if our world was in a much better place? I think most of us are fatigued of the constant 24/7 cycle of Covid-19, climate-change and China; we've been living with it day-to-day for almost two years. The good news stories genuinely feel few and far between, so whenever something positive does occur, we cling to them as if our lives depend on it.
Again, I want to make it clear that I do believe Cleo Smith's discovery deserves to be well documented in the media. But, I can't help but wonder if the extensive coverage is partly due to all of our desires to see and hear anything positive. Would we have seen BBC News or France 24 cover the story back in say...2013, before ISIS, Trump, China, the Extinction Rebellion and Covid-19 became dominating headlines in the media? I'm sure it still would have been extensively covered here in Australia at least. However, i'm not sure if we would have seen it take up the schedule in the same vein that it has. Nine ran exclusive coverage (on the morning of her discovery) for five consecutive hours on Tuesday morning. Five hours. Today was extended by an hour and finished at 10am, while Today Extra and Nine Morning News only reported on the story. The daily Covid-19 figures in NSW and Victoria didn't even get a mention!
So while I do believe that Cleo Smith's discovery is of national importance, it really makes me wonder what the motives are behind the extensive rolling coverage of it in the media. Food for thought.
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