This story might be helpful to those tearing their hair out about the news lately:
I grew up believing that following the news makes you a better citizen. Eight years after having quit, that idea now seems ridiculous—that consuming a particularly unimaginative information product on a daily basis somehow makes you thoughtful and informed in a way that benefits society.
But I still encounter people who balk at the possibility of a smart, engaged adult quitting the daily news.
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A few things you might notice, if you take a break:1) You feel better
A common symptom of quitting the news is an improvement in mood. News junkies will say it's because you've stuck your head in the sand.
But that assumes the news is the equivalent of having your head out in the fresh, clear air. They don't realize that what you can glean about the world from the news isn't even close to a representative sample of what is happening in the world.
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2) You were never actually accomplishing anything by watching the newsIf you ask someone what they accomplish by watching the news, you'll hear vague notions like, "It's our civic duty to stay informed!" or "I need to know what's going on in the world," or "We can't just ignore these issues," none of which answer the question.
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A month after you've quit the news, it's hard to name anything useful that's been lost. It becomes clear that those years of news-watching amounted to virtually nothing in terms of improvement to your quality of life, lasting knowledge, or your ability to help others. And that's to say nothing of the opportunity cost. Imagine if you spent that time learning a language, or reading books and essays about some of the issues they mention on the news.
Read on for the rest of the list.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Tuesday December 13 2016, @06:55PM
they just open the scope further
They broadcast both sports and weather the same way.
With sports you can tell the cultural pecking order of sports where american football coverage beats all, then baseball, then basketball, then hockey, then way down there when there's nothing to cover they start talking about college table tennis/ping pong championships.
Likewise with the weather, they'll scour the globe to find a rain storm, a blizzard, or a tornado blowing away a mobile home park and they'll roll historical footage if they have to, but they will have their disaster.
One interesting aspect of narrowcasting as fewer people participate by watching and jobs are eliminated in the field, things get weirder, less connected to social norms. Strange times are ahead for what remains of the TV news business. They've long since gone beyond "cultural escape velocity" WRT politics and I think you can anticipate strange stuff ahead as they exceed "cultural escape velocity" in other areas.