Insomnia ([info]insomnia) wrote,
@ 2007-05-07 09:52:00
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Quote of the day. (Not every day, mind you, but just today, really.)
While screeding today to someone I know, I wrote a quote that I actually quite like, so I'm going to share it...


"Without context, everything newsworthy seems shocking or irrational, and everything shocking or irrational seems newsworthy."



So, there ya go, for whatever it's worth.

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[info]saint_monkey
2007-05-07 05:08 pm UTC (link)
That's pretty good!

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[info]fengi
2007-05-07 05:32 pm UTC (link)
I like how that reads - could you post the rest of the rant?

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[info]insomnia
2007-05-07 08:10 pm UTC (link)
The preceding segment before the quote read as follows:

The very nature of the media's intense focus on breaking news encourages reflexive, overly simplistic solutions to complex issues, while discouraging responsive, informed views.

Without context, everything newsworthy seems shocking or irrational, and everything shocking or irrational seems newsworthy.

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[info]shortindiangirl
2007-05-11 02:08 am UTC (link)
Erm.

> The very nature of the media's intense focus on breaking news encourages
> reflexive, overly simplistic solutions to complex issues, while
> discouraging responsive, informed views.

While TV (!) media's focus on "breaking news" encourages this, I think the human, and particularly the American attention span is short, and therefore we all encourage it when we're trying to get anyone's attention successfully.

I think newsites like Al Jazeera or any of the read and comment sites encourage interaction with "facts" or the "news" and therefore encourages responsiveness.

Privatized news media relies on profits and their news stems from the profit motive. Thus is more sensationalist. Government funded news media can become propoganda. Public news media is typically underfunded because much of the same information can be available in other formats, and the public is not sophisticated in distinguishing its presentation or content. Is there a solution to the way that "news" is created / written / made & transmitted ?

Personally, I simply get my news from the blogs of my those on my friends list. This way I get a smattering of the things that people around the world find important to them. My only problem is restricting my informational pov to the privileged ones on the net.

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[info]insomnia
2007-05-07 08:15 pm UTC (link)
Basically, I was writing about how when you report only on the latest thing that ______ did, that it often seems completely irrational or out of character -- hence, making it newsworthy -- but if you have a context and a history to view, you can see that there are often understandable reasons for it.

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Obligatory contrariness...
[info]scyllacat
2007-05-07 06:18 pm UTC (link)
I think I need more context...

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[info]nova_starr
2007-05-07 11:41 pm UTC (link)
aren't "shocking and irrational" and "newsworthy" kind of synonymous?

do you mean to say that in context, nothing that is worth being in the news is shocking or irrational, and that nothing that is shocking or irrational is worth being in the news?

I'm confused. it's things that are shocking (in the world around us) and irrational (from our public and public figures) that I would expect and want to see in the news.

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[info]insomnia
2007-05-08 12:23 am UTC (link)
"aren't "shocking and irrational" and "newsworthy" kind of synonymous?"

Yes, but should they always be? There's a lot of shocking, irrational behavior in this world which isn't important newswise, and a lot of behavior that is newsworthy, and which appears to be shocking and maddeningly irrational, but actually makes sense from the point-of-view of other nations or cultures.

The inability to explain the context of actual newsworthy happenings in the world encorages people to strike back in simplistic or rash ways. It encourages anger, and discourages understanding. At its worst, it can lead to public manipulation, almost like a kind of stage magic, where the public's attention is being carefully focused onto something that doesn't matter, while something far more significant is going on.

News is generally about exceptions to the day-to-day, but if you are simply focused on what is currently happening, without any attention being given to what has gone before or what else is going on around you, all you're usually seeing and responding to is the effect, without the cause.

When the news is simply reduced to a constant bombardment of new things that don't make sense, why *NOT* focus on whatever whacko thing such-and-such celebrity did or said? It's nearly as meaningful or enlightening in such an environment.

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