Avoiding News
I tell people that if it's in the news, don't worry about it. The very definition of "news" is "something that hardly ever happens." It's when something isn't in the news, when it's so common that it's no longer news -- car crashes, domestic violence -- that you should start worrying.
This quote from Bruce Schneier prompted me to start seriously considering my media consumption as it relates to news, world and local. Suffering from news fatigue (though I'm still interested in almost news), I would like to turn off the radio, so to speak. I don't want to stop being entertained and informed. I just want an end to the treadmill of "breaking news" (which used to mean "something new and important is happening" and not "we have new information about an old story" or "an old story that we're working on is still happening".
Here's what I'd had to avoid in order to avoid the news:
pretty much all of TV (those damn 1-minute news during commercial breaks would ruin non-news programs) but esp. 5-7 PM on CBS/NBC/ABC. All of CNN and CBC Newsworld.
Facebook altogether (people re-report the news in their Facebook status). I'm not against new information that my friends provide about themselves. That's great! I like my friends!
most of Twitter, esp. trending topics. Many people rebroadcast news, either in the form of a link to the news item, or in the form of commentary without mentioning the specific event (prompting me to look up what they're talking about)
busy subway stations
Metro, 24 Hrs and other free dailies have operatives at the entrances handing out copies
people leave copies on their seats or the ground
anywhere there's a newspaper box, to the extent that you would have to plan your walking route around them
open data project mapping all the newspaper boxes?
remember that episode of Da Vinci's City Hall when the mayor removed all the newspaper boxes in protest of something. He can do that?!
convenience or grocery stores
fast food restaurants (which usually have newspapers lying around)
many (probably not most) blogs. Definitely popular ones, though, since they tend to rebroadcast big news.
Similar ideas:
Amy Qualls-McClure's personal media blackout
discussion at MetaFilter about Avoid the News: Towards A Healthy News Diet by Rolf Dobelli [I have yet to read it, and have a copy stored locally if it disappears online]
Information Diet: A Case for Conscious Consumption by Clay Johnson. (I'd lend you the book if I owned the physical copy or if Lendle worked for Canadians.)
Published in late 2023, Benjamin Toff, Ruth Palmer. Rasmus Kleis Nielsen wrote a book called Avoiding the News: Reluctant Audiences for Journalism. Here's the first part of the blurb:
"A small but growing number of people in many countries consistently avoid the news. They feel they do not have time for it, believe it is not worth the effort, find it irrelevant or emotionally draining, or do not trust the media, among other reasons. Why and how do people circumvent news? Which groups are more and less reluctant to follow the news? In what ways is news avoidance a problem—for individuals, for the news industry, for society—and how can it be addressed?"
Matt Cutts of Google undertook a 30-day challenge of no news
Max Novendstern wonders why we bother reading the news
Joel Gascoigne avoided the news for two years and has no regrets
Rolf Dobelli: News is bad for you – and giving up reading it will make you happier
Evan Williams: "News in general doesn’t matter most of the time, and most people would be far better off if they spent their time consuming less news and more ideas that have more lasting import. Even if it’s fiction, it’s probably better most of the time.”
The Breaking News Consumer's Handbook with a handy guide you can print out and tape next to your computer or TV.
The power of ignoring mainstream news by James Clear
Alain de Botton asks What's the point of news?
Paper newspapers always pile up at the corner of the table where I work and eat [archive.org]: Shu Kuge on news and anger.
If President Trump is making your news diet too heavy on chaos, here’s how to slim down
Do we owe it to society — and ourselves — to tune out the news?
I stopped reading the news. Is the problem me — or the product?
In mid-to-late-2023, Facebook and Google removed Canadian news sites from showing up in their services in response to the Canadian government's Online News Act. I've seen expressions of relief that people don't have to see news anymore (even if they don't love the decision and/or the impetus for it).
Jose M. Gilgado writes about breaking free from the news.
Some good tweets about breaking news:
Counterpoints (arguments specifically addressing avoiding paying attention to the news):
Madeleine Bunting: Rolf Dobelli's ideas about not needing news are dangerous
Related: