How "into" the news are you?

[Tiff]

Totally random Q, but like the title asks, how many of you are "into" reading/watching the news?

I'm not a news girl. We don't even have cable. I rarely go to CNN.com or any sort of news site of my own volition. I found out about the Norway shootings and Amy Winehouse passing through Facebook.

I just find the news too much of a shock and awe to really follow day in, day out. I've been criticized by friends IRL who say that I'm taking an ostrich approach to life. Maybe it is, but I know me and I know that I can't handle upsetting stuff.

Case in point - I read in an article today that the shooter in the Norway attacks was going to put "Lux Aeterna" By Clint Mansell on repeat on his iPod so it would "give him courage" during the shootings. I'll admit, I was curious. I searched YouTube for the song and nearly threw up listening to it. Its a depressive piece of music, and I found myself trying to think about shooting people while listening to it. My mind just doesn't work that way!!!

It was one of those articles I wished I never read. I can't say why it affected me so negatively, but it did. I was beyond upset, and started thinking about potential family members who might come across this article and potentially listen to this piece of music and view it in the light of that's what was playing to the killer as their loved one was shot.



Am I alone in thinking the media needs to back the frick off just a bit? How do people go about sending that message? I'm sure if we stopped buying tabloid-esq type magazines it would help, but I dunno.. the world certainly loves a train wreck.

Would love to hear other people's opinions on it.

 

[DanielleM]

My OH has dyslexia so he watches the news as oppossed to reading the paper, he has Sky news on 24/7 until I get sick to death of the same loop on all day and I either turn it off or turn the channel over.

I on the other hand will read the paper and skim over articles I want to read and articles that I don't, ones that I find too depressing.

As depressing as the news is sometimes, I do believe that it is vital to most people to know what is going on in the region/country/world, if we did not have the news I would be totally clueless on many issues, the news actually learns me a lot about the world and politics. People would lead very sheltered lives otherwise IMO.

So yes I believe the news should stay how it is as I think it is a great way to get information across to a large majority of the world.

 

[Lightworker]

I have 2 opinions. The news can be very depressing and if you are prone to internalizing things, best not to watch. However, I watch news (proper news not some of the stuff they air these days) because I want to know whats going on globally. I think its just a case of what works for you.

 

[tallybee]

I agree Danielle, I think it is very important that we have at least a clue about what is going on in the world. We are incredibly privileged compared to the vast majority of people in the world, and it's easy to forget that if we blinker ourselves. Yes a lot of what goes on in the world is incredibly depressing, but it exists and as such shutting off from it could be seen as maybe selfish, maybe naive, maybe ignorant.... each to their own though If it affects you very negatively then perhaps it's better not to know

I'm not by any means one of these people who seems to know everything about current affairs, but I do have a couple of news sites open whenever I am online (which with my coursework etc is a lot , I'm actually researching and writing a news article of my own atm).

I agree with you Tiff that tabloids and trashy magazines have a lot to answer for - you know the ones, will sensationalise anything for more sales. They'll do it as long as people buy their rags. As always, it is ultimately the collective consumer that condones what they do by buying their trashy 'news'. The only way they would back off is if they could not sell it. And like you say, there are so many people willing to get their scandal-fix, who don't care about the reality behind it.

xx

 

[tallybee]

I have 2 opinions. The news can be very depressing and if you are prone to internalizing things, best not to watch. However, I watch news (proper news not some of the stuff they air these days) because I want to know whats going on globally. I think its just a case of what works for you.

Agreed.

I think the point is making the distinction between actual news as in current events that the world should know about, and trashy crap that's just trainwreck gaping.

 

[Tiff]

I agree there's a definite difference between legitimate news and tabloid news. I think it was more the "shock and awe" news (tabloid style) that I have an issue with. Regular news is fine for me - I like knowing about stuff. Its just how tragedies are handled that make me go

 

[ShanandBoc]

I agree Danielle, I think it is very important that we have at least a clue about what is going on in the world. We are incredibly privileged compared to the vast majority of people in the world, and it's easy to forget that if we blinker ourselves. Yes a lot of what goes on in the world is incredibly depressing, but it exists and as such shutting off from it could be seen as maybe selfish, maybe naive, maybe ignorant....
xx

Agreed, im an avid news watcher as i like to know and am concerned about whats going on in the world. Awareness is a good thing no matter how distressing or upsetting the news is. I can understand how some might want to switch off tho, its getting more and more disturbing. I know some people who wont let their children watch the news as it upsets them, gives them nightmares etc and thats fair enough.

If only the news was mostly good rather than bad x

 

[nomadlife]

Not into the watching the news, to depressing.

I find that if anything really major happens you hear about it anyway, and then you can look into it further

 

[mandarhino]

I don't tend to watch the news on TV. But I read a broadsheet newspaper everyday plus another more tabloidy one and two broadsheets on a Sunday. I also check my work Twitter account frequently as we follow loads of news sites, check the BBC and Guardian website a lot. So a lot but my job requires me to keep abreast of what's going on.

I will often skip over distressing stories - have pretty much ignored the Libya coverage. Is a bit embarrassing when I tear up on the bus after reading about sad things.

 

[hopeandpray]

I almost never watch the news. My dad watched it every night but then after he died he were not in a place that we could handle any more bad news. And we haven't really watched in since
I just get too emotionally involved in it and end up really really upset. I know that terrible things happen all the time. If I thought that me knowing about it would help then I would watch but it doesn't.
Now I've stopped watching the news I find that the few times I do it actually effects me more, I used to kind of go, oh another bombing. I got used to the horror and looking back I don't think that that's particularly healthy.

 

[Tiff]

I find I get sucked right in if its a massive tragedy. I want to say its like a car-crash syndrome... where you are horrified and repulsed but yet drawn to it anyways?

I find myself always trying to sympathize with the victims, and then my mind always goes to "what if it were me?". What if I were the one trapped in a building? Kidnapped? Robbed? Shot at?

To be fair, I coped far better before I had my daughter. My whole demeanour shifted after having Claire, things I used to be able to distance myself with I can't anymore. I can't even watch movies where kids are left alone on their own anymore. Before Claire? Not an issue. Now? Ugh, I break down in tears.

 

[hopeandpray]

I agree with the big stories thing. Like the massive tragedy in Norway I did watch the news for that. I think that the way things have changed for you since you had a child things changed for me when my dad died. When you lose the person closest to you then death really becomes real in a way it never was to me before and for you the love for and life of a child really became real when you had your child.

 

[Tiff]

Thanks

Sorry for the loss of your Dad. We lost FIL last year to tragic circumstances, made things very much more real for me too. I've been incredibly lucky in that I've never had anyone super close to me pass away up until last year. Before that it was all great aunts and great uncles or great grandmothers who I didn't really have a relationship with.

My grandmother passed when I was around 12 or so but again, she lived 3 Provinces over and I didn't know her that well. I pretty much went up until the age of 30 without a close person dying on me. Then I had both my FIL and a girl who I was very fond of at work take their lives within 2 months of each other. Aaagh.

Its funny how life events change our perspective on things, eh? Again, super sorry for the loss of your father.

 

[TennisGal]

I'm a news person...we get a broadsheet daily, and two on Sunday. We watch the news twice a day, and I always watch Newsnight and Question Time.

I hate sensationalised news...and blame s'leb magazines for a lot of it all. How can scrutinising Victoria Beckhams bunions be good for anyone?!

A lot of stories make me very sad, and I will mull them over for so long in my head...but I feel if I don't know, and don't discuss...how can things ever change, iykwim? I am not saying I have the power to change things, but small things add up to make differences...

 

[pinklizzy]

I listen to the radio a lot, especially at night (world service etc)-it helps me sleep, particularly the political programmes!
I like knowing what's going on in the world and if I find it upsetting I just turn it down.
I do find that I'm a lot more sensitive about things since Erin was born, I suppose I can empathise more

 

[lynnikins]

i dont tend to follow EU or USA news but do follow NZ news lol mainly caus thats where im from and i follow my home teams still lol and the Christchurch Earthquake news since i grew up in that city and have lots of friends and family there still. like the OP i find out most news via facebook caus my friends mention it lol

 

[PeanutBean]

Hm I'm not sure where I fit in. I don't buy or read newspapers as I can't afford them (time or money) though I used to get the Guardian on a Saturday and before that the Observer til I boycotted it because of the disgraceful politics it was putting out. I read the Guardian online still when I have time. I almost never watched TV news. Last time was a spell of rolling news about Japan as it's a country close to my heart and I guess I had the time. I find TV news unbearably biased and full of spin and generally dislike the extra sensationalism video offers. I stopped watching TV news in 1999 when I was in the first year at uni and the BBC ran a story that human genes inserted into fish would make us cannibals. I have never and will never buy a tabloid or 'celeb' magazine, they are all utter trash with no worthy content and worse. I used to listen to Radio 4 in the morning and will again when Indigo has breakfast.

I think the news is vital for current world and national affairs particularly politics. Alongside sensationalist and misleading reporting that is rife I think in the UK there is a general inability to read between the lines and spot bias. For some reason a large number of the population think if they read it it must be true and cannot distinguish between fact and opinion. Perhaps they should be able to trust the media but there sill always be polemic pieces and sneaky opinions that don't base on the facts.

I believe in freedom of the press but despise the way they abuse it and am nor sure what sort of regulation could deal with one without disrupting the other.