Credit: Markus Winkler on Unsplash
I’ve often heard, ‘I don’t watch the news; I don’t need that sort of negativity in my life.’
This makes sense. There is a lot happening in the world, and the stories reported in the media are usually pretty awful. Right now, this week, some terrible things have happened. Upsetting and, sometimes, frightening. Today, many of us remember exactly where we were when we heard the first news about the 9/11 attacks. It’s a lot to carry in your mind and heart, especially when we all have our own lives, and the lives of our loved ones, to attend to as well.
However, I feel strongly that being in the privileged position of living in a house, with a job, in a country that is not war-torn or stricken with famine or natural disasters, I owe it to my fellow human beings to be aware of their very different stories.
I once heard someone say, ‘You have to be informed, but you don’t have to be overwhelmed.’ I’m not sure who it was. I’ve found this a useful piece of guidance to help me deal with current events and my relationship to them. I could also say, I don’t have to be overwhelmed, but I do want to be informed.
I am interested in politics and I like to know what is happening in the world. I also like to gather various opinions on important topics, to help me work out where I stand. I find that the best way to inform myself and to fill in the details is by reading. TV news is very easy to digest, but it’s also extremely easy to take in too much. 24 hour channels repeat stories over again and again. I don’t really need to hear something more than once. If I read the news, I can learn about people and events, but I can view them from a slight distance. After all, that is reality. Most of those things are not happening in my village.
I am not saying I don’t want to empathise. I can feel empathy for people suffering all around the world if I read their stories. Sometimes it’s more effective, as text gives me access to facts, statistics and details that I might not take in from video or radio.
I try to avoid – at all costs – taking in news from social media. If I click on a link that I see on one of those platforms, I am being manipulated by the algorithm. That link has been placed there by a person or organisation who wants me to be pulled in and read it. Or it has been shared by someone who thinks it’s important. If I follow these breadcrumbs, I am letting others do my thinking for me. I prefer to read my news from a wide selection of stories. Then I can decide what I want to read.
Of course, we do still need to watch out for bias. Media organisations, although regulated, can still curate their content to present things in a certain way. Consulting more than one source is at least a start in maintaining independence.
I’m not saying that I never watch or listen to the news; just that I try to limit my intake. Most of the time.
