1 week Ago By Jen Zoratti
Listen, I get it. I know news cycles have become shorter and more punishing. I know a constant flood of bleak headlines isn’t great for the ol’ noggin.
Read this article for free: Already have an account? To continue reading, please subscribe: * Listen, I get it. I know news cycles have become shorter and more punishing. I know a constant flood of bleak headlines isn’t great for the ol’ noggin.
Read unlimited articles for free today: Already have an account? Opinion Listen, I get it. I know news cycles have become shorter and more punishing. I know a constant flood of bleak headlines isn’t great for the ol’ noggin.
But “taking a break from the news” or going on a “news fast” is not the move. Yet I’ve encountered this idea everywhere in conversations online and off. That the news is simply “too much” (yes) and that it’s overwhelming and stressful (yes) and the best way to deal with the overwhelming too muchness is to stop consuming the news entirely (oh, no).
This could be a function of it being January. The first month of the year tends to go hard on abstinence — from alcohol, perhaps most visibly, with the increasing popularity of Dry January, but from consumption in general. There are no-shopping challenges and other kinds of “fasts” designed to break a bad habit.
It’s a response to the bacchanalian indulgence and over-consumption of December. Is news consumption a bad habit? I think it can be, in the way that the over-consumption of anything can be a bad habit. But to deliberately tune out? In this economy? With this U.
S. presidency? A recent edition of one of the many newsletters I subscribe to was all about the writer’s ongoing news fast. She suggested that there’s no such thing as “the news,” but instead a “curated selection of events chosen for us by algorithms and editors whose primary goal is to get us to keep consuming the news — and the best way to do that is to show us things that make us anxious and scared.
” First of all, comparing editors to algorithms is like comparing apples to koala bears. One of the biggest contributors to declining news consumption is the fact that editors (or anyone else who produces the news) aren’t algorithms. We are human beings.
We have a very educated idea about the kinds of content you want to see on our platforms, but we are not computers. Algorithms, especially those deployed by certain social media feeds, actively suppress news. Secondly, there is absolutely such a thing as “the news.
” There’s no such thing as “the media.” And that’s an important distinction. The way certain people talk about “the media” implies that we’re a monolith, or that we’re all in cahoots about what and who gets covered, as well as how and why.
Ever seen a newsroom? We’re not that organized. I believe taking care of one’s mental health is important, and I think recognizing when your own consumption behaviours are becoming problematic is equally so. Careful, though.
This is what the billionaires who are killing our planet and the nefarious people in power — whether that’s in the White House or in Silicon Valley — want. They want an uninformed, ignorant public. They don’t want critical thought or anyone holding them accountable.
They want to keep you numb and scrolling, yes — but with rage-bait, trolling, memes and shopping. So much shopping. Not with credible, fact-checked, deeply reported, eat-your-vegetables news.
Also, there’s a wide gulf between “fear-mongering” and “reporting facts that are frightening.” I can’t speak for all my newsgathering colleagues — because, again, there’s no “the media” — but our job, really, is to keep you informed and abreast of what’s going on, and sometimes what’s going on is scary. Let’s use a wildfire as an example.
Say you lived in a small rural community that was about to be engulfed by flames. That is, objectively, scary. But you would still want to know about it, right? In fact, you’d want to know as much as possible about it so you could make informed decisions about how to go about your life.
If you’re reading this, you’re probably not on a news fast. But maybe you’ve heard the appealing siren song of being clueless (I know I have and I work at the news!). Maybe you have people in your life who are checking out.
Instead of quitting the news cold turkey, what could you do instead? You could think about the mechanisms by which you get your news and be more proactive about that. You could choose a handful of reputable outlets and subscribe to them. You could sign up for a morning news briefing that arrives directly to your inbox.
Pretty much every major newspaper — including this one — offers that service. You could go directly to news websites or listen to the radio instead of consuming partially chewed information that has been regurgitated onto social media like so many screeching birds feeding their hungry, anxious babies. And what if it was “and,” not “or”? What if you cultivated hobbies and friendships and got out of the house sometimes in addition to staying informed? Tuning out might offer a temporary balm, but opting out completely isn’t really an option.
Ignorance is bliss, the saying goes. It’s worth asking, for whom? jen.zoratti@winnipegfreepress.
com Jen Zoratti is a columnist and feature writer working in the Arts & Life department, as well as the author of the . A National Newspaper Award finalist for arts and entertainment writing, Jen is a graduate of the Creative Communications program at RRC Polytech and was a music writer before joining the in 2013. .
Every piece of reporting Jen produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print – part of the ‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about , and . Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism.
If you are not a paid reader, please consider . Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Jen Zoratti is a columnist and feature writer working in the Arts & Life department, as well as the author of the . A National Newspaper Award finalist for arts and entertainment writing, Jen is a graduate of the Creative Communications program at RRC Polytech and was a music writer before joining the in 2013. .
Every piece of reporting Jen produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print – part of the ‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about , and . Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism.
If you are not a paid reader, please consider . Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Advertisement Advertisement.
