Because I work in a newsroom, I am often asked The Question: How do you keep up with every twist and turn of the chaotic news cycle without being completely bummed out and overwhelmed?It’s not the answer expected of journalists, but I’m hardly alone in this. Recently, novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a renowned advocate for feminism and gender quality, turned some heads when she told a conference crowd about a useful tool in the arsenal of activists: switching the news off.
The 24-hour news cycle has a maddening pace, particularly right now. The news is always asking for your attention, and worse, your judgment. Just the other week, I got irrationally angry at a billboard because, for a split-second, just seeing it forced my brain to decide whether I wanted a bottle of vodka. News stories can feel like advertisements—constantly demanding you make an evaluation of some kind.
I find this idea useful. Implicit in discussing the idea of “knowing in common” is that it is good to share a baseline of knowledge together. We don’t all have to share the same opinions, but it’s a good thing to know what the issues are. Applied in practice to the news, this means keeping track of the larger threads that shape the news stories we read.
One job of the news is to connect us together. We may all have different interests and perspectives, but a handful of larger themes emerge over and over. Identifying those threads is how we participate in a healthy civic society. They help us decide how we want to shape the future of our communities, cities and the country—they’re the news stories that change how we live.
Here’s the secret: to step outside the noise, you have to be proactive about your media consumption. If you wait for the news to filter through your social media feeds, it’ll blend in with everything that doesn’t require your attention.
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