The Predator: crossing the lines of journalism?

"The Shame Game" article in the Columbia Journalism Review exemplifies the changing new media. The articles focuses on NBC’s hit show, "The Predator." The show involves catching sexual predators who try to meet up with what they think are young girls, some as young as 13 or 14.

By having a 19-year-old girl pose as a 13-16 year-old girl in a chat room, the show lures online sexual predators to come visit the girl they are chatting with. Eventually, the predators will set up a date to meet, where they will come to the house, only to find NBC and lots of cameras are waiting for them, not a young girl.

The TV show "The Predator" on NBC is classified as journalism by some, but I think that's more than a bit of a stretch.

In all the roles of journalism and every journalist we talked about during class, I don't think entrapping criminals is one of them. It's one thing to report on the crime or the criminal. But NBC is becoming actively involved in the case. Too active if you ask me. So active that a DA in Texas think the show led to a suicide.

Sure, the show leads to the arrests of creeps, who are put in jail for things they should be in jail for. And while that's a good thing, it's not NBC's motivation for the show. The motivation is money and greed. The more criminals the program catches, the more shows NBC can air. The more disgusting the criminals involved, the higher the ratings.

In the end, NBC is hoping these predators are the most disgusting, violating people out there. Because, in turn, that will make NBC more money. Would NBC still actively be involved in this process if money wasn't involved? Highly unlikely. Once people get tired of the show and the ratings drop, NBC Dateline will withdraw its investment with the project.

So, where did this form of "journalism" come from?

I think it came from all of us viewers, even myself, who watch the show. I admit, I would rather watch the predator get caught than watch the news and hear about him being arrested. To us viewers, it's entertaining to watch the show. NBC isn't doing the show because it wants to catch these people. That's just some sort of added bonus. Rather, the show is tailored to what all of us want to see.

To quote the article, "Reality TV has so altered the broadcast landscape that traditional news -- magazine fare -- no matter how provocative -- just doesn't cut it anymore."

Watching the 5 o'clock evening news isn't entertaining to us anymore. It's the same crimes with different victims and different suspects. So shows like "The Predator" have given us more.

Also, while these predators are creepy, older men, the show still has a more of a positive outlook than the evening news. The news tells us about the crimes and the suspects, but the odds of hearing an arrest are not nearly as great. When you watch "The Predator," you see the criminal arrested, making us feel safer about the crime than we would watching the news. There's a sense of secuirty involved watching policemen chase them down.

In the article, Dateline's executive producer calls the show journalism, a form of enterprise journalism. That, however, I can't help but to disagree with. The show is not journalism. Rather, it's a project that includes very little reporting and a whole lot of money.

Source: Columbia Journal Review, January 2007, pp. 28-33