Hold the Front Page!

Recent tragedies have highlighted continuing problems in society, but the massive overreaction by the media will only confuse the situation and exacerbate the problem.

The cases of Madeleine McCann and this week Rhys Jones have been propelled into the public consciousness. The media-endorsed campaign to 'find Maddie' came complete with exhaustive coverage of every minute-by-minute development. Posters were installed in international airports and promises of massive awards pledged by rich persons of note. Yesterday we were witness to the undeniably moving but nevertheless spectacle-like quality of the Jones' family's appearance at Goodison Park before Everton's home game.

Also this week a number of figures have come out and criticised media coverage as excessive and damaging, not least Gerry McCann in his speech yesterday at the Edinburgh Television Festival. So, are we the subject to ever increasing sensationalization and what might be the effects of a media with an increasing tendency to emphasize emotion over hard facts and views over news?

Shock value and emotional appeals for action have come to dominate certain parts of the British media. One of Tony Blair's parting shots at his last Labour conference was aimed directly at the media, his now infamous 'feral beast' speech highlighting the falling standards and lack of reliability in the press. He discusses:

''...a media that increasingly and to a dangerous degree is driven by "impact". Impact is what matters. It is all that can distinguish, can rise above the clamour, can get noticed. Impact gives competitive edge. Of course the accuracy of a story counts. But it is secondary to impact. It is this necessary devotion to impact that is unravelling standards, driving them down, making the diversity of the media not the strength it should be but an impulsion towards sensation above all else. ''

Upon publicisation of the speech, inevitable criticisms from media outlets were levelled interestingly on Blair himself, not the overall subject of his speech.

Jeremy Paxman has also weighed in this week with criticisms of availability of stories over gravity of content and what he referred to as the ''media circus''. The coverage of Paris Hilton over the flooding in the UK was highlighted alongside the massive gathering in Portugal's Algarve over the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. Of that Paxman said: "everyone was there because everyone else was there", and, "at times like this, when the television hurricane hits a story, it too often sucks good sense and consideration out of the brains of those involved."

Which brings us back onto Gerry McCann himself, this week saying how unpleasant the massive media interest had become and how it was not necessary for the media to "bombard people on a daily basis with Madeleine's image".

In the light of such views Mr Blair, Paxman and McCann must be prepared to field some criticism regarding their own shrewd use of the press. However, the claims ring true and much is at stake. Editorial choices and the setting of the news agenda now broadly define daily life in the UK and furthermore is coming to have an increasing effect on our leaders. TV news editors work viewers into a frenzy and then demand politicians' or police action with immediate effect. Faced with the daunting prospect of going in the face of such popular outcry, leaders are bound to make snap decisions and implement scarcely-considered laws that will in the end affect all of us. An argument therefore must now be made for a full debate on the accountability of the press in public life.