I was reading Steve Pavlina’s post “Overcoming News Addiction.� He was off news for 30 days and explored the negative side of news watching. But the only problem is, he concentrated on negative aspects only and swayed to the extreme, from news addiction to news fasting. I agree that news is often lopsided and presented in a certain colour to the reader. But to be an active citizen of any country, news watching/reading is a must. Here I am not talking about the overrated, over exalted generation X, Y or Z. They are busy being more American than Americans themselves. I am talking about normal citizens.
Newspapers published by our freedom fighters ignited the public mind and inspired us to fight for our freedom. Newspaper and magazines published by Raja Ram Mohan Roy created awareness against the evil practice of sati and encouraged female education and widow remarriage.
I agree with Steve, when he states that news is lopsided, myopic, negative, and untrustworthy. BUT an active reader applies his/her own mind and filters the information. We find many instances, where news-reporting generated enough pressure on government and they were forced to retreat from harmful or regressive decisions. The recent one can be Jessica Lal and Priyadarshini Mattoo murder case. Common public has come out in the open and demanded justice for them. Just NDTV had received more than 2 lakhs SMSes for Jessica Lal, which their editor-in-Chief had presented to the President Kalam.
Many times, I heard of the outbreak of an epidemic in the city and listen to how to protect myself and my family from news channels. When bomb blasts happened during Deepawali in Delhi, I was about to visit one of the affected places, but listening to news saved us from any untoward incident.
Instead of running away from news, I think we must develop the skill of selective listening and filtering and how to remain unaffected by the negativity caused by wrong news reporting.
hmmm…practically sensitive as always i must say… 🙂
…the world has become a small place…hence its more imperative for us to know whats happenning…coz anything anywhere can affect anybody albeit in a different measure…but it does eventually…ain’t dey project NEWS = north east west south…. one needs to know the dorectional aspect when one needs to get on along on the next plane… god bless u Alka ji 🙂
oops its 5.13 am here and i am committing may typing mistakes… its directional and not dorectional 😛
How do you get the trackback URL for Steve Pavlina’s blog?
I can’t seem to find it. When I click on the little trackback link it goes to the permalink of that post which isn’t a valid trackback URL.
Thanks for your help. I’ll check back here for the answer.
Reading news make u have an opinion ,but then it depend on the individual how he sees or rather wishes to see things. if one wishes to see things from the eyes of a journalist, then he will see only wat the journalist would want to show, but as u said if a reader filters news with his common sense, he can certainly add it to his benefit.
i agree on the point tht news r useful, but wat do u think abt some news channels intruding into the private lives of people?
I agree with you completelty. News are a must these days and sometimes we have to rely on it as you rightly said. In case of calamities, it is news who tells us what, how, when it happened and what or where to approach. Think of floods, aircrash or major train accidents, hijacking etc. We get to know everything thru news.
Agree with maverick for selective news. We are not addictive but selective news readers/viewers.
In my opinion, intrusion of privacy is only to increase the (reader/viewer)ship of that news agency. They want people to see/read their product. It’s only for mktg purpose.
Totally being disconnected, unconcerned is not good.
But knowing too much is also not good.
As such extreme of anything is not good.
So stay aware, do know what is happening in world,
What is cooking in your neighborhood but not exactly start standing in their kitchen how are they doing.
But so many news channels are doing this, too much info, and it’s over flowing.
Hi,Alka,
Yes,News watching definitely boils down to a fine art…being able to filter out the genuine from the sensational part of news. And,as you say, watching news regularly can save us from disasters,at times. Of course, the one time I remember being most up-to-date with news was when our Social Studies teacher in school used to give a 10 marks special section for only news related items.So, we used to remember all recent newsworthy event quite well.(No TV in those days.)
I love steve pavlina’s ideas .His news addiction article is the best ,i have ever read.
News are only for those ,who are too dumb to find anything interesting to do.
I disagree with you on this.
bhasin munish
Navi dilli.