First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Action 1. Check the relative neutrality of your current news sources using sites like allsides.com.
Action 2. Diversify your news sources.
Action 3. Subscribe to your local newspaper.
Action 4. Support ($) other news sources you think are doing a good job of dispensing honest (enough) information.
I’m addicted to the news cycle. I’m feeding off of the insanity of it. I scroll through it over my morning coffee and my bedtime tea. I’ve tried to limit my intake, but I am captivated by the shock and awe of it. I want to make sense of it, but there’s no sense to be made. I find no nourishment, but it’s thrilling and terrifying and I can’t get enough.
Before the election I didn’t devour news nearly this much. In fact, I tried to avoid news online since it oftentimes led me down an existential black hole. The thing with the internet is that you can chase any thought to infinity…even dark thoughts. When I’m consuming internet news I inevitably come across articles that hint at evil, corruption, or injustice. These stories pique my curiosity because they don’t mirror what I experience or see in my day to day. These stories introduce discord and I consequently feel compelled to chase that discord to some resolution. Suffice it to say that resolution remains ever elusive because the more I read, the less I feel I know about the world and the people in it. It seems that the problems we face are immense and formidable and bottomless. As far as my psyche goes, bad news leaves the door ajar, just enough space for anger and sadness to creep in and disrupt my thinking.
I don’t want to give you the sense that it’s all bad. It can be good, honestly, to be uncomfortable. In fact, I think it’s essential nowadays to embrace discomfort. Feeling unsettled spurs reflection, connection, action, and ultimately change. The challenge is consuming just enough to be informed and to be activated, but not so much that the hopelessness paralyzes you. Right now I feel paralyzed.
So what’s different now? My news sources came in at a trickle before the election. I went online with a particular question or topic in mind that I could explore from many angles. In my quest I would usually be drawn to personal stories and deeper analyses. News was really just a portal to examine the grey area behind any headline. I didn’t let the news just pour in unfiltered…I searched for it. But that all changed about a month ago, when I feared that I had lost touch with common sense. When the words “fake news” and “alternative facts” became a common refrain. When people started hurling insults at those they disagreed with as if it was their moral imperative. I felt out of touch.
In order to remedy that, I went on the hunt for truth and hope. Spoiler alert: I didn’t find truth…I did, however, find a little hope (more on that later). I started devouring news from across the spectrum. In addition to moderate, more value neutral sources (think: Christian Science Monitor, C-Span, Federal News Radio, Reuters, BBC), I perused sources that occasionally lean (think: New York Times, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, CNN, The Telegraph, The American Conservative, The Washington Examiner), I sought out knee jerk journalism that plays to its core audiences (think: Fox, Huffington Post, National Review, Mother Jones), and even introduced some of the echo chambers where you can flirt with conspiracies and unite with the angry “us” to rally against the ignorant “them” (think: The Free Thought Project, Info Wars). I needed, for whatever reason, to be bombarded by the divergent thinking that seems to be ever-present right now. I needed to see for myself what people were saying to themselves and each other about our country.
It’s been a month of endless consumption, and I’m tired. I know I can’t sustain it. I know I need to get back to a more normal rhythm and routine. I need to get back to connecting and creating rather than consuming. Consuming leaves me feeling hollow and alone. The news is not a surrogate for community.
I’m of a generation that’s accustomed to getting things for free – especially digital things – but last fall my husband and I decided that the time had come to subscribe to our local newspaper. I want someone telling stories about my place and I have to be willing to pay for those stories. Alongside stories of violence and injustice there are stories of people investing in our community. Even as I cringe at the typos, our local newspaper has been a refuge. The texture of the paper grounds me, the words inside attempt reason (which is really all I can hope for), I learn new things about my community, and there are CARTOONS, CROSSWORDS, AND COUPONS! Need I say more?
Put down your cell phone. Breathe. It will all be okay. Just take it one step at a time.
Action 1. Check the neutrality of your current news sources on a site like allsides.com. After reading from an array of news sources over the past month my gut says that this is a pretty good site that I can use to calibrate my own barometer. It’s also a good way to peruse headlines from different angles. Refer to Snopes, Politifact, and Fact Check to dig a little deeper on particular claims or headlines (although these fact-checking sites can sometimes have their own bias!).
Action 2. Diversify your news sources. It’s good to see what news other people are exposed to and how they might be processing things. It’s important to look at the world through different lenses. Just try to stay away from the comments section (especially right before bed)…the comments are universally ugly and depressing. After over-diversifying my news sources, I’m going to start pruning back to keep myself sane.
Action 3. Keep local journalists in business by subscribing to your local newspaper. I want people paying attention at the local level because I think it’s important to have news from multiple scales. Subscribing to our local paper has been a very worthwhile investment. For about $5 per month we get a paper two days a week (on Wednesday and Sunday).
Action 4. Support other news sources you think are doing a good job of dispensing honest (enough) information. I think the press is a bulwark of our democracy. If we want a free and independent press, the people have to be willing to pay for it. We donate money to NPR and BBC. After a too long hiatus, I will be re-upping my subscription to the Christian Science Monitor. I have also made donations to Wikimedia and All Sides.