No news is ... still news

Shared by Editor & Publisher in its daily e-newsletter , Aug. 4, 2011

David Brinkley, whose career spanned 1943 to 1997, ranks right up there among the most trusted voices and journalists in America. His nightly reports on ABC and NBC spanned wars, a moon landing, presidential conventions, and, in his own words*, "2,000 weeks of news." 
In his heyday and my childhood days, news wasn't instantaneous via a tweet or immediately viral via a posting on Facebook or other favorite social network. Instead, our family read it in the Dispatch or waited for the 6 o'clock evening news. Credit cable networks for introducing us to 24/7/365 news in the 1980s.

Brinkley understood the passion of sharing news, and was among the best and most intense of storytellers. With the non-stop cycle in which we indulge today, we can as well share that passion of news. At our fingertips. Immediately. As a consumer or as an originator. In 140 characters. To click to read later or to share with our circle. To blog or leave comment on.

Brinkley's quote gives several questions with regard to news today. Does hyping all news with the same intensity skyrocket stress levels? If we overindulge in a steady stream of news, will the overabundance numb its impact or instead lead us to become news connoisseurs?

The news consumer ultimately judges the worth of the news, nosing out the trivial from the catastrophic. Case in point, here are two examples of posts on my feeds from the past 12 hours: Thought that night would never end. Finally home vs. Death toll from Turkey earthquake rises to over 400 as 2 week old baby is found alive in the rubble. The first is an opinion, the second a fact. The former raises further questioning since the reader is left uncertain what catastrophe the author returned home from: a flat tire? Horrendous traffic? A seemingly endless meeting? A dinner date gone awry? Whatever the cause, the individual is likely not commenting as a survivor of the earthquake. Yet, the emphasis, as Brinkley reminds us, is just as intense as if that were the situation.

It's our role as the author to understand the emotion of our words, and in today's non-stop cycle, let's put our words in perspective. The intensity of the storyteller shouldn't overshadow the intensity of the story. Our goal as the consumer is to understand the difference.


*as cited in One Man's America (2008), George F. Will, Random House, p. 118 (Chapter 15, Lingerie and Duct Tape) : ISBN 0307407861 9780307407863