thoughts on the news

[pigsonthewing6]

The media tends too put a negative spin on things. In fact, news is almost always negative. So is it worth it to even read the news. I want positive input and surroundings but all the news instills in me is negative feelings like fear and doubt. but i do want to know what is going on in the world and i want to be able to talk to people who bring things up, so what is the solution

Should I look at the news at all?
Should i limit it?

[Parthon]

I play the "Media Truth" game. I read the newspaper or watch the news, and I try and discover three things about it -

1) How do they want me to feel? Each news story always has an agenda and they want you to react in a certain way, it's almost like they are a treating people like lab mice. Sometimes it will be outrage at a tragedy, sorrow for someone's loss, fear from a number of threats, or any number of different things. If you can tell what kind of agena they are pushing then you can limit the impact it has on you.

2) Whose side do they want me to be on? After you get over the initial energetic emotional reaction, the media wants you to take a side. It may be a political side, a social side, family vs non family, authority vs individuals, government vs business, there's lots of sides in the media and they always want you to take at least one. Even worse is that they may want you to take different sides in different articles. If you can see which side they want you to take, then you can choose not to take a side and remain neutral, and true to yourself.

3) What is the actual truth. Now this is the hard one. Most media reporting needs to come from somewhere, and they often use the truth because at least then you can back up the opinions with facts. After you've identified their biases, then you can see if you can uncover the truth behind the words. What happened, why it happened, who was involved, etcetera. After you have found the truth, or elements of it, you can make up your own mind on the matter. This will keep you aware, but without falling into patterns of fear and doubt.

It's also good to try and find a media source that's fairly factual and unbiased. I've found many internet news sites tend to be like that, but you still need to be sharp and aware for the hidden agendas. It would be good to have unbiased and straightforward media, but that won't happen while there's money and power to be had in swaying the masses.

[BrettAshlee]

The media definitely has an agenda. This can sometimes be seen by watching major news stories on 2 different cable channels. A great current example is the US democratic primaries... it's easy to see that different news channels are biased toward certain candidates.

What a great post, Parthon. Here's the simplified approach I use for dispelling negativity and emotional agendas generated by the media: 1) what is the basic story? 2) what has been added to the story? 3) what has been taken away (omitted) from the story?

I also like to be informed about what is going on in the world, but I've found that a brief look at the news goes a long way.

Brett

[Jennihul]

I haven't watched the evening news in probably 12 years. I watch news at noon by default because my coworkers put it on the TV but it's lame local crap and they can only squeeze about 3 horrible death and destruction stories before they have to move onto world events and the guy that cooks food from Kroger.

But you aren't obligated to fill your life with such tripe. People dying, getting hurt and doing stupid things is not news. We as a species have been doing that since we walked upright. So bag it.

Every now and then my coworkers will be talking about something that seems so surreal I have to ask what happened. Then they look at me like I must live under a rock and tell me, I get the story and boom, I'm done. They feel the horror, the shock, the pity, the sadness, the fear.

I just get the story. I like that way.

You can also register for a news service like at www.my.yahoo.com and set it to show you only certain topics. I have mine set to show me the top ten Reuter's headlines. That's all I need to know what's happening in the world. The rest are Science/ Health/ Sports/ Oddball stories / Philanthropy/ Space/ Investments. I wish they had more topics that weren't mainstream news. But it's still cool.

In the car I only listen to XM satellite radio and my own CDs.

My homepage is set to HappyNews.com - All The News That's Fun To Print

Jennifer

[Jonathan Mead]

I haven't watched the news in over 7 years. I also haven't read a paper and don't visit online news sites either.

This has been one of the greatest decisions I've ever made.

I've found the news mostly focuses on sensationalizing trajedy. If they were actually realistic with their reporting, I might be interested. But they have to think about rating remember?

[stevedevane]

I've been a news junkie for years. I recently have come to realize what it does to your mind to have it constantly bombarded by all that negativity. In the last few months, I estimate that I've cut the amount of time I spend watching TV news or lnternet new sites or listening to the radio news by more than half. It has made a tremendous difference to the good in my state of mind.

[Mags]

I also haven't watched/listened to/read the news in years. I initially thought this might make me more sensitive to the news if I ended up seeing it "by accident" e.g. if I'm at someone's else's house and they turn on the TV news. But it hasn't - I think my own spiritual growth has made me quite strong inside and I find I can watch the news quite objectively on the rare occasions that I end up seeing it: I can separate out the facts from the fear, and I can feel compassion for people involved in a tragedy without getting sucked in to the dramatic hype and spin that the media place on it.

[Jonathan Mead]

Another point I'd like to make is this. The media presents all these trajedies on a daily basis. But compared to what you would actually witness on a daily basis over the course of your life, without the news involved, is totally minimal. I mean, you might be exposed to some trajic events and serious drama. But it's nowhere near to as often as you would watching the news on a daily basis. That comparison really helped put things in perspective for me.

[astra]

Most of the news I see is news headlines when they advertise the news on tv. I'll only watch the full thing if I want to know more about a story. Occasionally if I'm bored I'll check out news.com to see what's happening.

I like the odd-ball stuff, it breaks up the day-to-day. I do wish they'd report more happy stuff though - It makes me sad to think there's so much death, destruction and hurt out there.

Also, in Oz we have a tv show called 'Good News Week' which recently came back on air. It's a gameshow for comedians about news over the past week, which is really fun. If only they presented the news like that every day, it would be so much better!

[{aspiring_to_clarity}]

I haven't watched the news since I spent the whole first week after September 11 with the tv on 24 hours a day. I was so fearful that I would wake up to a new world...I was afraid I'd miss something.

Now, I don't watch the news at all unless I catch a glimpse of it when someone else has it on. I have enough negativity without it! I read news online sometimes, but I've gotten away from even doing that much. I agree with what Steve said in one of his articles: if it's a natural disaster that affects me, I'm sure to know about it soon enough and if it's so important as to need my attention, someone will inform me of it no doubt. Of course that's not a direct quote, but you get the idea.

I definitely think that it matters what you input into your mind. The less negativity the better.