Too much bad news, too much shocking news. Its coming fast and its always trying to be more alarming then the day before. I had to catch myself as of late. I was feeling crappy and dismal. I wasn't sure why then I realized life has become increasingly serious in my head. I seem to have lost my sense of humour and sense of hope. Whats wrong with me...(deep sigh)?
Oh wait...could it be the constant bombardment of information that is unethically reported and announced in such a manner as to shock, anger or panic people ? Is it the smiling faces at 6pm that give you the 45 second blurr on whatever pieces of information they could put together in rapid fire succession, just long enough to raise your eyebrows, they smile and tell you tune into the late news edition "we'll keep you posted" (because we care).
So then you say enough of that, off the TV goes, only to find your favorite radio station is following suite. Forget about the Internet, thats 2 hours worth of surfing trying to get all the facts from so many different sources.
What has got me irritated today, is last weeks unfortunate line up of celebrity deaths. I won't go into detail for unless you live in a cave you know all about it. I am just fed up with the feeding frenzy, the lack of compassion, the medias obvious capitalizing on tragic events and to top it off I hear the radio shows that decide they are going to chat it up about "celebrity death pools" and Internet sites (news based) that have already mocked and joked as far and as tasteless as they could take it.
I am digressing from the main point I am trying to make, the "celebrity " frenzy was just a breaking point, the real political, economic and international events , however, I find are reported in much the same manner, is it time to turn off the garbage? but how will I stay informed.
I went looking for some genuine good news , that is hard to find, or maybe it is not reported in the same manner so it doesn't stick out as much, but it is out there.
I do find the BBC seems to report in more of a objective point of view.
I'll keep looking.
The media can manipulate, sway, influence all facets of our lives.
I guess I have a question... why does the biggest influence in our lives seem to go so unaccounted for?
JC Masterson, Silent River Kung Fu, Alberta Canada
4 comments:
Me so happy since I turned off the T.V and the radio. Radio and T.V became so obnoxious to me I turned them off for good and for the better. My kids don't really get commercials, if they see them at someone else's house their like "what is this?".
It's not that I don't like good entertainment - get a season on DVD of a show you like, watch it whenever - an odd movie here and there.
To stay in touch with world events I use news.google.com . They collect news from a variety of online sources so you can read from different angles (so you can seperate info-tainment form actual news).
You have more control over the way(speed) it comes to you and can customize the page (i.e delete entertainment or technology or business news from the page).
If someone has a better on-line (preferably independant) news source, I would be happy to know about it.
Tragedy has always been part of the human experience, but only of late with our emergence from being isolated from the rest of the world have we experienced everyone else's tragedy's along with our own.
Will this help us to all come together or will it prove to beat us down?
my thoughts,
Adrien
thanks for the tip Sifu, I believe we need to be globally informed nowadays, I just wish it didn't feel like you were listening to "Jerry Springer" sometimes!
I love reading your blog Sifu, every week I find you give me something to think about.
I'm in the same boat as Sifu Prince... I don't watch TV, don't even have cable at my place or tin foil rabbit ears, and I don't notice it. I rarely listen to the radio so I generally get my news from my parents, friends, or clients. I didn't even hear about swine flu til a week after the mainstream scare. I tell people I live in a box, but I tend not to worry about things. It's much easier than always hearing about the latest death... maybe ignorance is bliss? Might not be the best way to go if you like being up to date on stuff, but it works for me.
Haven't had TV for decades. We have a TV set down in a cold corner of the basement, so it is not central to our lives. No reception, but we watched movies and the like with the kids. Now they are older, the girls watch movies at their own convenience, as long as all school work, chores, responsibilities etc are in place. And today, I announced that I will no longer pay for rentals, so Jill used her hard earned walmart money to rent a vampire movie which she is presently watching on her laptop. Big screen events are limited to anything with Jackie Chan, Robert Downey Jr, and Johnny Depp in them, but not all of them.
Radio: CKUA, FM 94.9. Bert listens to CBC, but I prefer CKUA because the announcers are more calm and laid back, and at 10pm theres the BBC World News. The music is awesome, eclectic, intelligent. No advertising because it is listener supported radio.
Newspaper: The boss' son (47yrs old), dutifully arrives in the morning with a copy of the Edmonton Journal. The Boss (83 yrs old)reads it, then hands it over to me and I read it on my break. So reuse, recycle.
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