When I led the Youth Group in our old church, we regularly played a game called “Spot the Lie.” In it, I would replay a current TV commercial — selling jeans, teeth-whiteners, electronic devices, cosmetic products, etc. — and ask the students to “spot the lie.” The whole premise was that American consumer culture thrives on a series of lies (we should look this way, own that product, and pursue whatever is current), and that the media and advertising agencies regularly employ those lies to manipulate us.
Pretty subversive, huh?
I was reminded of that when reading Phil Fox Rose’s article at Busted Halo entitled What Works: Turn Off the News. Rose posits three simple reasons Christians should unplug from the American news cycle and its obsession with violence, misery, controversy, celebrity, and death:
- Life is stressful enough already. Who needs this?
- If you are powerless over something, there’s usually no benefit in worrying about it.
- Exposing yourself regularly to the ugliest aspects of society darkens and coarsens your view of other people, which takes you away from compassion and love, and thus away from God. It undermines your spiritual fitness.
It continues to amaze me how central a role “the news” plays in the average American’s existence. It’s become part of our ritual — coffee / bagel / NYT or wheat grass / tofu / Daily Kos. Walter Cronkite became known as “The Most Trusted Man in America.” But what does that say about us, as a nation, when a news anchorman becomes the voice of reason? ‘Course nowadays, Cronkite’s news is less about objective reporting and more about TMZ-style entertainment.
Rose’s article points out what most of us consistently overlook: the mind-numbing effect of the electronic media upon us. What does it do to us to regularly meditate upon “the ugliest aspects of society”? And what would it look like if we completely disengaged?
In many ways, the American news media are purveyors of “the lie.” Okay. Perhaps it’s not intentional, but just a byproduct of the cultural greenhouse we have made them caretakers of. Nevertheless, just like sitcoms and reality TV, our news outlets are driven by ratings. And the “sensational” is what scores. Furthermore, nightly network news rarely give sufficient time and balanced reportage to some extremely serious issues. I mean, why don’t we hear more about the persecution of Christians worldwide, the oppression of women in Islamic countries, the political power-broking that has led to third world famine, opposing views about global warming, or the growing threat of nuclear war. If you said, It’s just not that interesting to jaded Americans, bing!bing!bing! you win the prize.
Where in the mainstream news media can one find “compassion and love” as the guiding oath? You just can’t. And maybe that’s the problem — our news outlets (the staple for societal communique), as now constituted, simply cannot cultivate and contribute to this most basic of human virtues. Sure, maybe that’s not their job. But must they only amplify the worst in us?
Perhaps a bigger question than the effects of the news media upon us, is why we can’t we turn it off. But, come to think of it, maybe its effect upon us IS that we can’t turn it off…
Neil Postman asks in his book, Amusing Ourselves to Death ( a must read for all adults) and I paraphrase "The importance of the news is directly related to the action you are required to take by hearing it. Other than the weather, name one piece of news you have heard on TV this week, that required you to take some sort of action?"
If it doesn't require action from you its probably not news, its more like gossip.
OK — 90% of the time I've agreed whole-heartedly with your comments and commentary. You even managed to convince me that there's a good reason to continue to grow a Christian speculative fiction genre. In this case though, I'd like to throw out my differing two bits: I have become increasingly eclectic in my sampling of news media. I read the Slate at times, BBC at times, the Australian Broadcasting Company newsbriefs, NYT articles, MSN articles, this blog, the Root, Salon.com, and pretty much anything else that interests me no matter HOW far left or right it leans — oh, Sciencenews online, too. I find it fun, informative — and it gives me the freedom to form my own opinions. I also watch our local FoxNews — mostly to laugh at how biased their reporting is and how they attempt to sensationalize EVERYTHING (ever see a nightly news program try and sensationalize a slow news day? OMGosh — now THAT'S entertainment!)
My point is that the news is out there and now more than ever before, gathering it an sifting it is our responsibility. Which is as it should be. In fact, perhaps it's a GOOD thing. It certainly forces us to exercise our powers of critical thinking — and PLEASE don't harrangue me about how people HAVE no critical thinking skills. This is our chance to promote it, suggest it and foster it in the kids and adults we meet and work with and have influence over.
I don't think Jesus would have had it any other way — when the disciples joined him he did NOT whisk them all away to a monastery to indoctrinate them, but led them OUT INTO THE WORLD CREATED BY THE ROMAN EMPIRE!
I much prefer to watch the news and then think for myself as to how I will interpret that information and what I will do with it. I am not saying this is you, however, those I know who take this approach and don't watch the news, take no interest in the world beyond their own nose. They don't know what's going on in his country. They do not take any active roll in discovering information that should aide them as a voter or citizen. Rather than crawl in a hole, I'd much rather take whatever information is thrown at me and then take my thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ.
Our local news and most of the cable news channels don't report "the news". They report a slanted type of yellow journalism with very little fact, if any, mixed in with sensationalism gathered from unsubstantiated blogs and "unnamed" sources and government "officials". Unlike those who Elaina mentioned (the self-centered uninterested in the world beyond their lives), I choose who to listen to and/or believe based on the sources they use and quote. Those choices don't come from the news channels both national and local because they've proven to be untrustworthy and/or in the tank. Journalism rarely exists in the world today, and this pathetic excuse for "reporting" all around the world–not just here–smacks of self-seeking agenda-driven low life (by their choice) hypocrites.
It's amazing, I officially (and quite intentionally) checked out of the news cycle years ago. Yet…when I'm out doing my day job or sipping coffee in the hallways at church, I find that I'm never lost when folks start discussing whatever's happening in the world. All I can figure is that osmosis is a live and well, at least when it comes to the "news" that really matters.
So when I say, "I don't miss the news" I literally mean it both ways.
It's kinda like when 9-11 or the OKC bombing happened. I remember, as a fifth grader, watching the death tolls on tv. At some point, you've watched the continuous coverage so much for so long your mind goes on overload and you do become kinda numb to it. I honestly don't keep up as much as I used to, but I do occasionally go pop in and catch up on at least the headlines. On some level, I'm perpetually sketchy on the details, but it's better than knowing nothing or developing an apathy due to overload.
After 9-11, my Bible teacher talked to us about it, and he brought up the same point: The more we saturated ourselves, the less overall impact it had. What began as tragedy was quickly turning into "and there's more on the WTC towers….there's the plane footage again…etc, etc…"
At some point, it was better to turn the news off (or at least limit how much we watched/read about it) simply to keep ourselves sensitive to what happened.
Thanks for the wonderful, divergent, comments! When our kids were young, once or twice a year we would "fast" from television for a week. It was more difficult for the kids than us, but in the long run it proved to be a great tradition, one that fostered family time, reading, and creative art opportunities.
I think what I'd be saying here, in this post, is not that we should withdraw from the news cycle, but that we be more "detached" and "discerning." By "detached" I don't mean being oblivious to real newsworthy events, but that our beliefs and values are not steered by stock market crashes, gangland violence, product recalls, or swine flu. And especially by sensationalistic packaging. By "discerning," I mean being able to "spot the lie," or as Guy put it "gathering" and "sifting." But this requires a certain "immersion," for we need no critical thinking skills if everything is sanitized.
The problem, however, as I see it, is NOT that we watch too much news, but that we are too indiscriminate; too many of us take the news at face value without testing it for spin. In this way, I think fasting from the news can help us ultimately be better news viewers.
Thanks for the great comments!
this is capitalism bro. If you don’t like it there are other countries you can move to or you can turn off you TV but you are attacking the very foundation of our economy.