Journalism Utopia: Read <The Turmoil of the News>

I read Rolf Dobelli's "The Art of Living in Rejecting the News" a while ago, in which the author argues that being inundated with news for a long period of time is harmful, just like overnutrition or even drug addiction, instead of receiving news to improve our health A good understanding of the world, but unknowingly enslaved and poisoned by the news. And the author's advice is to completely quit the news, after all, staying away from the news is actually nothing for the lives of the vast majority of ordinary people. Substantial impact. That book gave me a lot of inspiration, but I always felt that it was too extreme to completely quit the news. This week, I finished reading the famous British talent Alain de Botton's "The Turmoil of the News", which also pointed out the various kinds of news in contemporary society. Problems and drawbacks, but Alain talks more from the perspective of how news organizations, including journalists, should make news reports more meaningful and serve the society better, and also put forward what attitude we should take as readers to read And filtering news, it can be said to write the ideal news world in the author's mind, which can be described as the utopia of news.

The author divides news into six categories: political news, international news, economic news, celebrity news, disaster news and consumer news. In conclusion, political news, which always makes headlines, is tedious and lacks an in-depth perspective, international news It seems that formatted text is always filled in according to a template, and economic news is full of a lot of data, terms and charts, which often make the public read in a fog and become pure "investor news". Probably because of the above three categories The news is done so badly, so the audience will swarm to pay attention to the other three types of news: celebrity news usually has two extremes, either leading to infinite admiration and envy of celebrities, or excavating and exposing various celebrity scandals Then it triggers the most vicious and vicious attacks of the group; disaster news is short-lived, and the public will be emotionally shaken by those sensational, grand and tragic narratives, but they will not pay attention to the follow-up situation, and will not think about the problems revealed behind the disaster. ; As for consumer news, it is nothing more than paying attention to what products are on the market, their prices, their advantages and disadvantages, and then leading one consumption trend after another through list recommendations, but it will not lead the public to think about what products and products they need. Service, whether those things that people are chasing are what they need.

As far as political news is concerned, the author makes a very thought-provoking point: we have always believed that the greatest enemy of democratic politics must be the severe press censorship system, and freedom of speech and freedom of the press should be the natural allies of civilization. In modern society, Instead, we find that there is a force more harmful than censorship to undermine the political will of the people, and that is to tell events in a sufficiently disorganized, fragmented and fragmented way - which is actually how much political news in contemporary society is reported. . When news organizations broadcast a steady stream of briefings with no beginning and no end, as long as the number of briefings is huge, without explanation, the topics are changed from time to time, so that readers are unaware of the difference between one major event before and another major event now. Interspersed with anecdotes such as movie stars or heavy-duty social events, the public will be confused, distracted, and even boring, because they lack the ability to keep paying attention. When most people stop paying attention to politics In the news, even major political and social issues cannot mobilize public opinion, and social changes and improvements cannot be discussed. Then, dictators can rest easy, and there is no need to use news bans.

The ideal news model in Alain's mind has the function of educating and enlightening. It does not simply instill information into the public, nor does it lead the public to make simple dichotomous judgments, but induces the public to enter into mature and sensible thinking. It's too utopian. So, the core is still don't let yourself be overwhelmed by news, don't let news reports dominate your emotions, and don't let news statements replace your independent thinking. As the book ends: "Think about Achieving a fulfilling life requires the ability to perceive when news ceases to have an original or important educational function. At these moments, it is time to end the association with strangers and fantasies, and to govern, make or break, create , or leave the slaughter to others, knowing that the rest of life is short, and that one's own goal is yet to be accomplished."