Are You as Addicted to the News as I am?
Like any other addicted person, I’m not exactly proud to say I’m a news junkie. So, one way I learned to deal with my addiction over the years was to analyze the science behind the mass media. In fact, that has much to do with why I recently decided to start a Masters degree in Mass Communication. Fittingly, for one of my most anticipated classes, our first assignment is to write a blog post about how susceptible to media influence we are. So let’s dive in.
Among my friends, I would say that I watched the most news in 2020. But for the record, I did manage to stay away from CNN, NBC, FOX etc. Instead, my guilty news pleasure came from looking at all of the COVID-19 dashboards that were popping up left and right. Johns Hopkins’ dashboard was the biggest one (and may still be). I’ll get into this theory I have in a bit, but I believe I sought out all of those dashboards for a reason. They were easy to read, and they hit me with the same type of dopamine rush that a news headline would have provided. Those dashboards were also often affiliated with scientific institutions, research firms and government agencies. I liked not getting my information from the traditional news outlets, whose ratings by the way, were skyrocketing at the time.
During the pandemic, BLM protests and election coverage, I also found myself on Reddit and Twitter more than ever before. Both gave me news quickly, and mostly free of noise. I liked that. It also made me feel like I was getting a better idea of that chatter around the news, rather the recycled news itself. That was a bit of a new process for me. There was also really good data reporting through certain mega-threads that I found very useful. They were updated daily, easy to read, and most importantly, incorporated tons of reliable sources like Johns Hopkins, STAT News and CIDRAP.
Looking back, it’s been pretty fascinating to see how I — and the general public — have evolved given the current media landscape. After so long, anyone that values independent thought, bias-free media, and just good journalism would have taken the same path towards achieving mass media independence. I just wish more of my family would follow suit. They’re more addicted than I am, and like most people, they probably have no idea. I’m obviously fortunate enough, some may even say privileged, to be able to remove myself from such vulnerabilities that mass media is tied to. But, it did take work. I urge you, my family, friends, and anyone else reading this post, to take a step back and look at what person you want to be when it comes to consuming mass media.
