TV News

Do you watch the news? I don’t. Not any more. I still keep up with what’s going on in the world, but I’ve found that the packaging of information on television is very frustrating to me.

For one thing, I read quickly, so reading a news story is fast for me. But, I also find that the TV news shows and even the videos on the internet are painfully lacking in information.

And they all have some level of bias – even if it’s just on what stories merit coverage.

The emotionalism is also excessive. I want to know what is happening in the world, not to have my emotions torn from one side to the other. Certainly, some stories are heart-rending and can’t be told completely clinically, but when every story is intended to make me feel big emotions, I eventually feel none. And the emotions are quite often intended to swing my opinion one way or another – when I just came to read about events.

My solution: I read several news websites. I’m not a news junkie, so I no longer subscribe to the in-depth papers like the Wall Street Journal, but I usually check out a couple of news sites every couple of days. I rarely watch TV news except for live events like debates or election returns. PWM and I talk over current events with the kids at least once a week, so they aren’t isolated from what is happening.

During this recent election cycle, I’ve realized how much work it is to manage the media presence. Even without TV news, there are always little sidebars and pop-ups on web pages. I don’t want to completely ignore things, though, because I want to make informed decisions in November. I want to be able to pray for our country right now. And free speech and free elections are such a gift that I don’t want to take them for granted!

I think I’ve got a decent balance right now on how much information and media to allow in. I don’t want to get emotionally overwhelmed by it, but I don’t want to be uninformed. That’s why I need to keep some discipline of reading about what is happening but pay attention to the sources that work for me.

How do you manage all voices around us without losing your mind?