I love the talks available online from the TED conferences which are held every year in California. The site is ted.com and there are numerous short presentations from some of the world's leading minds. TED's tagline is "Ideas worth spreading." Take the time to watch this short (about 5 mins) talk about the world view as presented to the United States from the news. Then tell me what you think.
I spend most of my time trying to be informed about the world by watching/reading the news. I've always liked the news, even as a child, (granted a child who was born wanting to be a grown-up). I used to sit with my parents and watch the news at night. I even remember following the presidential race of 1984, when I was all of 5 years old.
My old age, and the influence of my husband, has made me more cynical about the news. I now realize that it is like any other industry or corporation and is motivated by it's bottom line. I've seen this evidenced in the amount of entertainment news that is mixed in with traditional news stories. It has been taken to extremes in some of the cable networks who seek to attract a specific demographic (more loyalty and profit) at the expense of balanced and fair coverage of the news. There has even been a move to promote "for entertainment only" shows in a news format that, once free from the journalistic standards of proof and accuracy, are driven even more toward increasing the bottom line.
Despite this, I still look to the news several times a day, especially online. It's fast, and interesting, and makes me feel like I could have a somewhat informed conversation about something should the opportunity arise. Given the information in this video, it seems that while I may appear informed, it is superficial at best, and that is at the heart of what I want to change about myself, not appear intelligent, actually be intelligent.
So what do I do to become more informed about the world, not just my corner of it? What sources of information do you all turn to and do you "trust" them, or are they convenient more than anything? Can the content value of any commercially marketed media product, be it television, books, newspapers, magazines etc., ever be truly separated from it's market value?
Hey, I am totally up for participating in this new blog with you, but just not for about 2-3 weeks. I know you already know this but life is CRAZY until then. Love you!
ReplyDeleteI love the TED talks, I need to browse them more often - have any other favorites? I have often lamented the same problem with news. One problem I have is limited time to educate myself to the level that I feel is adequate would take much more time than I have at this point. Concise, well explained news without all the fluff would make all the difference. I read our local paper (Orange County for me) which I find surprisingly informative (albeit poorly written) on local schools & gov't. I think my new favorite online news outlet is BBC. They appear to have a slightly better world view than say CNN. The map from that presentation was awesome. I wonder what it would look like if you mapped news from just Fox News...
ReplyDeleteHahahaha Mychael-Ann, that would be a VERY interesting map indeed! I'm also curious about how the map would look using the news coverage from other countries. I'm going to check out the BBC news online. I catch their coverage occasionally on PBS and NPR and they definitely have more to say about international stories. I always find it fascinating which U.S. stories they do cover. It's never what I would guess the rest of the world thinks is the most important.
ReplyDeleteAs for favorite TED talks, the one that stands out the most to me right now is called Stroke of Insight. Matt and I watched it when it first came out on the site a couple of years ago, and of course after I had my strokes last year it took on new meaning for me. It's given by a Harvard brain scientist who suffered a stroke at a young age. Her description of her own fascination with her compromised brain was very compelling to me. I can remember thinking about it many times during all the neuro appointments I've had over the past year. You can tell that all the brain docs are fascinated by their subject and would ask me questions because they were curious about my brain's journey just as much as they were about assessing me medically.
I am terrible about keeping up with current events. This is in part because with so many individual people in this world of ours I find it hard to find a source of news that isn't subjective. Intentionally or not everyone views things in a slightly different way and ten different people will report the same incident differently. So I'm with MA, I would love a simple to point, just tell me exactly what happened using the fewest words possible, while still communicating the facts. I do follow fox news a tiny smidge and I have perused NPR before, but it's hard to sift through what is really worth knowing and what celebrity got fat that week. So now I have two things to check out, BBC and this TED.com. Thanks guys!
ReplyDeleteI have a bit of a bias about news, having been a newspaper editor some years ago. Later as my travels took me into public affairs and I had a chance to teach some about PA - I often used a true story to illustrate media's agenda. Its not about truth, its about accuracy.
ReplyDeleteSome years ago a seaman's race took place between the (then) Soviet Union and the United States. Two participants in this race. The United States won, the Soviet Union lost.
But when Pravda, the news agengy in the Soviet Union reported the story - they chose an accurate version: The Soviet Union came in Second Place, and the United States came in next to last.
Not exactly truthful - because the facts are skewed to support the media's bias. But is it accurate? Absolutely.
And every news outlet has a bias. Its nearly impossible for any writer to write and not reveal a bias, no matter how slight.
I remember folks used to call my newspaper "The Good News Gazette", because it seemed that nearly every story had a happy ending. Funny, I thought, how folks picked up on that.
Glad to see your new blog, Katie. Will look forward to adding a few thoughts from time to time.
Karen, you crack me up,"what celebrities got fat that week", HA! I have come no closer to "solving" this dilemma,... a need to be informed about current events while not being able to really "trust" any of it. I wish we lived in the days when Walter Cronkite was considered the most trusted man in America. Perhaps it was all misplaced trust, but it still seems easier.
ReplyDeleteKeila, I love that story. It applies to so many things in life. It falls into a category that I call creative honesty. The one thing that I actually learned in statistics class at college, was that statistics can be used to support almost any claim. Without much effort at manipulation, statistics can use figures to effectively lie. Your story is illustrative of the same principle using facts instead of figures. So interesting.
I invite each of you ladies to post something for all to ponder!
Well, I watched the video and I guess I am more accepting of the news coverage. I mean, to me it is practical that the U.S. and Iran get more news coverage than say Figi. I accept that it is not possible to report in some equal way the stories of the world. And she thinks it's a problem that the Paris Global Warming Report was given less attention than Anna Nicole Smith. I think it shows her bias for the global warming agenda. She judges Global Warming to be of significant concern. I think Keila is right, it is impossible to not show at least a slight bias in reporting. And the reporters and the viewers have to judge what stories are more worthwhile. We all have them and it is difficult to hide. Great story, by the way, Keila! And like you, Katie, I don't trust the reporters either. However, I trust Fox News the most. And Glenn Beck is my favorite. :)
ReplyDeleteOh, but Glenn Beck isn't even a journalist. He comments on the news and he doesn't pretend to be an objective journalist. He doesn't cover all the popular stories of the day. So, I guess I like entertainment news. :0) Glenn is funny. I guess I don't have a favorite journalist.
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