Stop blaming the media!

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I've been a miserable sod for several years now and I recently found out why. It's because I read too much news. According to Rolf Dobelli, author of The Art of Thinking Clearly, news is bad for me and giving it up will make me happier. In a 2013 Guardian essay, Dobelli explains how the daily news is misleading, irrelevant and shallow, and that exposure to too much of it works on our minds and nervous systems like a particularly bad drug. Dobelli's conclusions make sense, especially if you've seen those reports describing how Fox News viewers actually know less about what's going on than people who watch no news at all. Or if you've ever read an op-ed about the media's increasingly monopolistic ownership, its toadying to the establishment and its need to satisfy advertisers and shareholders by putting profit before proof. In short, it all seems so obvious. The media is rotten, detrimental, and getting worse. Caveat lector, folks. But this isn’t the whole story, of course. We play a part in it too. We can be so quick to sneer at anyone who sues McDonald's for making them fat, and yet we are loathe to take any personal responsibility for the media's various shortcomings and our own, often dazzling ignorance. For better or worse, we habitually prefer sound-bites to substance, pop stars to real stars, confirmation to controversy. There may indeed be systemic problems with much of the world's media, but in the end we are given the news we desire and deserve. Beyond this small failure of perspective is a greater one. Though a great deal of our news is populist rubbish, geared to sell rather than inform, there is plenty of good and important journalism happening every day. Take a look at a few of the recent Pulitzer Prize or British Journalism Award winners and see what you’ve been missing. Think about the many hundreds of reporters who are imprisoned or killed each year while pursuing uncomfortable truths on our behalf. Recognize that even biased or inaccurate reports can be pieces of a bigger and more truthful picture – if only you’re willing to look at some of the other pieces too. I think we have a choice. We can be more cosmopolitan and thoughtful about what we read and watch. Or we can stop blaming the media for selling us a product we’re only too willing to buy.