For the last few weeks I’ve been experimenting with what it feels like to read a print newspaper every day. I chose to use the National Post for this experiment (although I occasionally swap it out for a Globe & Mail). Today, unequivocally, I’m reverting to my online-only habits.
The reason? Simply put: the local print papers make me ill. The sheer volume of negative news that fills the pages leaves me physically unwell. Here’s a sampling of the articles in today’s paper:
“Windsor raid lands son of Imam slain by FBI”
“Crowd looks on as girl, 15, gang raped, police say”
“Daytime murder in Naples remains unsolved”
“Rwandan sentenced to life for Genocide”
“British Columbia’s Macabre Mystery”
“Pair planned to kill classmates with Molotov cocktails, court told”
“Crop protection – Booby traps, armed guards getting common“
And I haven’t even made it to page 10.
I’m not contending that bad news doesn’t exist or that it should be hidden from the public – I recognize that bad news does sell more papers. However, personally, I’d rather believe that I live in a world that has more news worth celebrating than news to fear. In a society where we people are information-rich and attention-poor, we need to pick and choose our sources of information and I am reverting to my online sources. For those that are interested, here are some of the tools I use to better tailor my incoming feed of news:
http://www.dailyperfect.com (they predict the news you’re interested in – very cool)
http://www.twitter.com (yes, I use it for my news)
[AgnosticPlatform] (a locally developed app that will be open to the public mid-november. exciting)
Sorry National Post, but your generic sensationalism has overwhelmed my desire for local updates. Instead, I will continue to crawl the web looking for more satisfying fare.
2 Comments
There is a reason I call the national post –the fascist post.
The worst part – is that the most disturbing of the news articles weren’t even local. They *imported* the most bothersome parts.