Great advice. I often try to tell friends and students who engage in frenzied forwarding that if you have the urge to forward a breaking news tweet, think about the fact that whether it seems like a wished-for miracle or a disaster, it’s likely to be news not yet confirmed.
The older I get the less sure I am about anything in the news except for realizing, as the song goes, "only a fool and their capers get a name in the papers."
Don't hear many newspeople these day repeat that old saw, "If your Mother tells you she loves you, find a second source" or, as another song puts it, "Nobody loves me but my Mother and she could be jiving too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvOMYu5EeHs
It helps to keep in mind that corporate media is not a public service, but a business. And like any business, it's primary focus is to generate profits. But before we demonize the media we should keep in mind that they prosper only by giving us what we want.
I often feel that so-called breaking news is neither. And truly consuming journalism starts -not ends - with reading a story of interest. I can easily spend hours sifting through multiple sources on a topic introduced, for example, by a story in The New York Times. It turns Saturdays into information scavenger hunts. It takes substantial effort to be a truly informed reader. The journalists who expertly guide us down these paths are indispensable, even if none are infallible.
Great advice. I often try to tell friends and students who engage in frenzied forwarding that if you have the urge to forward a breaking news tweet, think about the fact that whether it seems like a wished-for miracle or a disaster, it’s likely to be news not yet confirmed.
I've been actively resisting being stampeded by the news. Latest example was the Dalai Lama story which appears to be about sexual abuse, "eat my tongue," but turns out to be an expression of elder generosity within Tibetan culture: https://www.elephantjournal.com/2023/04/the-tibetan-meaning-of-eat-my-tongue-dalai-lama/
The older I get the less sure I am about anything in the news except for realizing, as the song goes, "only a fool and their capers get a name in the papers."
Don't hear many newspeople these day repeat that old saw, "If your Mother tells you she loves you, find a second source" or, as another song puts it, "Nobody loves me but my Mother and she could be jiving too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvOMYu5EeHs
It helps to keep in mind that corporate media is not a public service, but a business. And like any business, it's primary focus is to generate profits. But before we demonize the media we should keep in mind that they prosper only by giving us what we want.
I often feel that so-called breaking news is neither. And truly consuming journalism starts -not ends - with reading a story of interest. I can easily spend hours sifting through multiple sources on a topic introduced, for example, by a story in The New York Times. It turns Saturdays into information scavenger hunts. It takes substantial effort to be a truly informed reader. The journalists who expertly guide us down these paths are indispensable, even if none are infallible.