It kills me to think about the millions Tribune wasted re-writing wire copy for its Red paper debacle, when it could have reached its target teen-and-early-adult audience simply by covering the stuff that age group cares about: like ‘Idol.’ Where’s the local MySpace site of the day link? The homework help button? The mashup gallery? Heck, if news editors spent less time in the newsroom and more time at home with their kids (assuming they have some), they’d have a far better idea how to reach this audience.

To Steven Johnson’s well-stated theory that popular television is more interactive and engaging than ever (while the Olympics has declined by comparison), even the talent show competition still doesn’t draw in the citizen’s media interest of subjects that hardly ever have a TV show devoted to them: people talking about their cats and dogs.

Your premise worries me as well. Should popularity drive importance? That’s the crux of media studies, ain’t it?. Not to worry, your opposite numbers on Broadway seem to be evading this question as well.