Question: Is being up on News/Politics as trivial as being up on the latest information related to sports or entertainment?
I lead my life as the answer to the question is a strong "no," however, I feel that I may be nearsighted and arrogant on this issue. I am a stubborn person and this can often happen to me once I have convinced myself that something is right.
I will be the first to scoff at anyone who wants to keep up on who the latest pop icon is or who the latest pitchers for the Milwaukee Brewers are. I will rebuke this action saying that someone's memory could be used for something better.
And in my mind it seems like it could be. I feel that we in this country are trying to keep up a democratic system and that takes an educated population. A population that doesn't waste its time with "nonsense," but with important facts about the actions of their politicians and an understanding of those actions in the context of world news.
I have to believe three things about the turn away from news/politics. One, people for the most part do keep up on news and I just don't notice it. Two, people who do find the knowledge base trivial because it does not help them directly in their day to day life and they may not be likely to discuss it with anyone. Thus if sports or entertainment news is just as useful then I will choose the one that's more fun to listen to. Last, issues have become too complex and overly engrossing for people to worry about with all the other things they have to worry about.
These are the reasons I would come up with if I had to determine why I can never seem to find many people to discuss news/politics with.
I would like to hear some thoughts on this though because I know I am wrong in some sense, but hopefully it's not nonsense.
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3 comments:
I think people do keep up on the news, but often times it's the wrong type of news.
In local news, the biggest stories are when someone gets murdered. However, it's an even bigger story if it's a young person, and even bigger if it's a young white person, and biggest of all if it's a young white female. Throw in her being from a wealthy family and you have yourself a great news story that everyone will be talking about.
Oh, wait, there's some sort of local political rally or alderman election coming up? Who cares...
In my journalism class, they told me that the only real reason people watch the news is for the weather. That makes sense, since most news these days is just the same garbage over and over again. The more violent or shocking, the better.
If you don't believe me, watch Nancy Grace on CNN Headline News. That has to be the most horrible news program in the history of television.
Even the presidential news coverage has become just downright awful. There is almost no discussion at all about the actual issues, it's all about who can make the most controversial comment and how the other candidate responds to it. I stopped paying attention a long time ago, I've already made up my mind and I really hope people don't judge these guys based on news coverage (but they do).
So, with all of that, why shouldn't I care about sports. It is just as useful as the rest of the garbage on TV today and it is definitely better for my brain than "reality" TV. In fact, let me just generalize and say that by turning on the TV in the first place, I am voluntarily sacrificing my brain for the sake of entertainment and anything that I happen to learn along the way is just an added bonus.
I do agree that local news is poor. I really do not know where to turn for my local news. Probably the Journal Sentinel if we are lucky. Maybe the World Wide Web. That might actually be the best source for Milwaukee news. As for national and international stories I still conjecture that they should be watched, but there also a person needs to be careful of their source. I believe that podcast are actually an excellent way to avoid the trash and timing of TV. You take it with you, not be distracted by pictures, and fast forward through stuff you don't want to hear.
I would go one step further than J Z and conjecture that the TV is not even good entertainment anymore besides the travel channel and PBS. I find ESPN even pretty sickening these days.
ESPN is 95% garbage, ever since Disney took them over.
Thank goodness for FSN Final Score giving me sports highlights. However, they are all available on the internet these days, so I won't even have to deal with that anymore.
You are right, TV really isn't good entertainment. But I do have a few shows that I like--mostly on Comedy Central. The Discovery and History channels still have some good programming also.
Maybe I'm behind the times, but I've never watched a podcast. I'm sure I will eventually, but I'm waiting for someone to finally make a product superior to the ipod so I don't have to buy another one. I did manage to replace the battery by hand on mine for $10, though.
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