For the media, 25 is a trend

Nearly as viral as the Facebook note that has prompted college students to share ’25 Random Things About Me’ is the media coverage of this navel-gazing phenomenon. From Slate to the Fashion & Style section of The New York Times, ’25 Random Things’ has reporters and editors reflecting on what passes without a second glance on college campuses.

It seems not only bored students and 20-somethings are infatuated with the meme; the news media are as obsessed as any procrastinating college kid, tagging all their frienemies including Time Magazine, ABC News, MSNBC News, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Boston Globe and The Washington Post, among other mutual friends.

The world’s top news sources may be indulging in this apparent triviality because reporters have an anthropological and personal interest in the web activities of the Facebook generation, Boston University College of Communication journalism professor Robert Manoff said.

‘Not unreasonably, there’s a certain fascination with the wild and crazy things that go on on the Internet,’ he said.

Part of the fad’s allure is adults’ desire to participate in things that are seen as ‘cool’ among young people, Manoff said. ‘There’s a certain degree of jealousy and wistfulness on the part of editors and reporters.’

Journalism professor Bob Zelnick said phenomena such as 25 things can have legitimate news value.

‘It’s the same thing that made the cell phone newsworthy, and the same thing that made Napster newsworthy,’ Zelnick said. ‘These are all various manifestations of technology and the condition in which we as a society live.’

The newspaper business is also going through a difficult period as electronic media and television news are becoming ever more popular, international relations and journalism professor H. Joachim Maitre said. Many editors are turning to ‘fluff’ pieces with mass appeal to keep readership.

‘It’s an experimenting time with the newspapers,’ he said. ‘They are trying.’

Some BU students and faculty, however, suggested some other things, sober and silly, that they would like to see in newspapers.

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25 Very Specific Things BU’ students and faculty want to see in the news:

1. Proposition 8

(Liz Walbridge, CFA/CAS ’11)

2. Obama’s first 100 days

(Carry Galvan, SAR ’10)

3. College students’ financial woes

4. The closing of Guantanamo

(Prof. Jennifer Knust, STH religion, Nos. 3 and 4)

5. Classified ads for jobs (Stephanie Kalina, CAS ’10)

6. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

7. How to fix the economy(Prof. Robert Manoff, COM journalism, Nos. 6 and 7)

8. How we could have been

aware of the changing economy’s dangers

9. Serious analysis of Internet fads and their sociological implications

10. Analytical critiques of Obama(Prof. Bob Zelnick, COM journalism, Nos. 8 to 10)

11. Gender-equal pay in government (Abhishek Seth, COM ’12)

12. The next great telescope that will replace Hubble (Prof. Michael Mendillo, CAS astronomy)

13. How the stimulus will affect renewable energy (Prof. Robert Kaufmann, CAS geography)

14. Climate change’s impact on urban populations and

environments (Prof. T.R. Lakshmanan, CAS geography)

15. European sports coverage ‘-‘- hill jumping! (Prof. H. Joachim Maitre, CAS/COM)

16. The United States’ standing in scientific research (Parth Dwivedi, CAS ’12)

17. College students partying too much and studying too little (Elizabeth Ramirez, CAS ’12)

18. Young people’s involvement in environmental issues (Prof. Alex Coverdill, Core Curriculum)

19. Financial aid

(Nicole Cousins, COM ’11)

20. Boston’s cigarette ban on

college campuses

(David Bruni, CAS ’12)

21. Governmental crisis in Iceland (Andrew Racov, SMG ’12)

22. Updates on Jamie Lynn Spears’s baby

(Tina Zito, COM ’11)

23. Tibet and Darfur

(Victoria Guida, CAS ’12)

24. Elections in Zimbabwe (Gibran Shaikh, CAS ’10)

25. ‘Pretty much anything’ but 25 Random things

(Kat Cook, COM ’10)