Trivialializing What's Real

A recent study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism finds that the major news media have less news. They cover about two dozen stories and repeat them ad nauseam in each venue. The nature of these stories is called trivial by this group. Blogs, on the other hand, contain more variety and more in-depth analysis than the traditional news sources. ...

According to civilrights.org:

The review was conducted by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, an institute affiliated with the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and financed by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

As part of the review, a special study looked at how a variety of outlets, including newspapers, television, radio and the Internet, covered a single day's worth of news and concluded that there was enormous repetition and amplification of just two dozen stories. Moreover, it said, "the incremental and even ephemeral nature of what the media define as news is striking." [my emphasis]