While watching some footage on Hurricane Irma wreaking its havoc through the Caribbean and the USA in September 2017, the television broadcasters were lamenting that the radio broadcasters were ‘losing’ and ‘losing out’ because people were tuning into their TVs for the coverage the visuals of TV offer, rather than listening to radios. Immediately, I furrowed my brow.
Since when did news become about winning and losing? Isn’t news for all? Isn’t it actually a service for everybody, equally?
Why have we made providing news a competition?
What is newsworthy is that our worldwide media has become about advertising deals and making money based on readership/viewership levels – the going rate for a commercial during the 2017 USA Superbowl was US $5.02 million (1). It’s based on clicks and shares on social media, achieved all the more depending on the degree of drama, sensationalism, scandal, ability to stay front page for longer etc. The more terrorising, horror-full, exposing, painful, weird, attention seeking, alarming or impactful the reporters/journalists can make a story, the better.
Many media outlets stand behind the motto: ‘People deserve to know.’ But so often this gives rise to the ‘dog eat dog,’ or ‘cat and mouse’ chase style of journalism we have that seems to far outweigh the simple bringing of news and information for the awareness of humanity. People do deserve to know, but we need to take it further and say instead, ‘People deserve to have the truth.’
We have awards for best or most courageous journalist; awards for frequency and variety of topics covered by one journalist; awards for breaking news within 36 hours of the story breaking; best investigative journalist awards and best in-print or online reporting.
We have prizes given for the stories that impact multiple parts of society; prizes for best in health care reporting; for ‘intrepid’ reporting on conflict, corruption or human rights transgressions; prizes for reporting on corruption, women’s rights and refugees; and prizes for best environmental journalism.
And we have awards to “honour journalists who risk everything to bring us the news” and for those who “persevere under the most difficult circumstances” (2). To me this begs the question: why have we made it good and desirable and now even necessary to ‘risk everything’ for a story? Why are we worth so little as human beings that we have made it acceptable to risk our health or life for recognition?
The news isn’t all bad though. Some of these awards can be useful and relative to the industry of reporting, (good/truthful) news opening our eyes to things that otherwise might stay hidden. News has the ability to bring people together through the shared knowledge of aspects of life. If only this was all news was used for.
So what if we were to (only ever) honour and celebrate journalists/media outlets through an appreciation of their respectfulness, decency and dedication in providing true stories for the public?
Let us not base our recognition on rewarding journalists’ behaviours, at times outrageous. So often these behaviours aren’t all that lovely. Let’s now look at an example of the difference between the reporting of modern day news versus how it was done some 70 years ago.
In the Samford Museum (Queensland, AUS) there is a wall of old newspaper clippings from the 1947 train crash when a train derailed between the Ferny Grove and Camp Mountain stations.
The newspapers from the day cover the accident quite graphically and in great detail. You get to understand that this was definitely a catastrophic event that killed 16 people, injuring 38 more. But you get this from the facts, not from the author’s opinion or use of emotive language. The story was covered thoroughly to provide a true account of what happened, with no words like ‘inexcusable,’ ‘shocking’ or ‘appalling’ needed; no need for a call to action from readers. Simply, the paper told the story as it happened. Punishments or damning those responsible wasn’t called for, as that was not the responsibility of news in those days.
If we were to read a report of the exact same incident in a newspaper today, we would get the facts, yes, but they would be some 20% or so of the story, – the rest given over to hypothesizing, calling for castigations of those responsible or criticising/critiquing the system that allowed the accident to occur.
Journalism these days strives to inflame the reader, to garner a response, so much so that it appears we have become almost numb to horror, needing the most reeling story to elicit a response. We have become overstimulated through emotion.
And so about this numbness to horror. Because we have become desensitised, are we choosing to not feel the pain of what we are exposed to until it becomes so, so bad? Are We, the readers or consumers of media, actually the ones asking for more and more sensationalism for our news?
Is it because We demand this style of journalism first that we are then supplied or fed the lies and half-truths we call news? Perhaps it is Us that is both the cause and the problem.
If this is indeed the case, and I do suggest that it is, then we will continue to go around and around, most likely sinking lower and lower into the stakes of indecency as We demand and are supplied what we call for. Ask, and you shall receive. When will we have had enough?
Enter Universal Medicine in the News: The True History. This is a website written by people who have first-hand experience of press abuse and has been written “to restore journalism to the decency of its purpose” (3).
Any person or any business who has ever been written about where the journalist has omitted the finer details, embellished the story to attract a wider audience (“don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story,” they say), or plainly made up ‘facts’ because the true story didn’t seem enticing enough, has been abused by the press. I dare say there would be billions out there that this has happened to.
Over time we have learned to not believe everything we read in the papers. But why should this be so? I want to be able to see truth in everything I read. Why should I have to discern what’s true or not, reading with skepticism or doubt, knowing facts may not have been verified, skimming through the emotive words and phrases to get to the real truth?
The call to action from this article is for people to reach that point too of being sick and tired of everything the majority of the media industry stands for today and ask for it to change. Because we have the situation now that money talks – readership levels and consequent advertising dollars mean the difference between the survival of a publication or not – we-the-consumers are in the perfect position to demand change.
If We choose to remain deliberately ignorant to the harm being caused through the media industry, then We remain part of the cause.
If We ALL choose to not face the fact that We are asking for what the media presents, then We ALL remain part of the cause.
If We ALL are not part of the answer – the change we want to see – then We ALL remain part of the cause. What we are silent about is what we accept.
For a week or two or permanently, don’t buy, tune in, subscribe, like, share, engage in the fodder available out there and see what happens…
By Suzanne Anderssen, B.Com, Dip Av, parent, writer, Brisbane, Australia
References:
- org. (2017). The History of Super Bowl Commercial Costs. [online] Available at: https://www.ama.org/publications/marketingnews/pages/history-of-super-bowl-commercial-costs.aspx [Accessed 30 Dec. 2017].
- Free Press Award Nominees (2017). [online] Available at: https://www.freepressunlimited.org/en/free-press-awards-nominees [Accessed 30 Dec. 2017].
- Universal Medicine in the News: The True History. (2017). Universal Medicine in the News: The True History. [online] Available at: https://www.universalmedicine.news [Accessed 30 Dec. 2017].
Further Reading:
Cyber abuse @ one’s fingertips
A Convenient Truth Most Foul: Journalism
Media Reform
Religious freedoms
“Journalism these days strives to inflame the reader” Truth is drowned out when we seek drama and sensationalism.
Thank you Suzanne, what you have shared is front-page-news but to do that the journalists would have to admit their error-full-ways.
Distorted news coverage of an organisation that I know a lot about has opened my eyes to the corruption that’s eaten through the media. I used to listen to the news whilst driving to work but now it leaves a bitter taste. It’s not that I hadn’t noticed this bitter taste before, I’d just ignored it. News offers only more disharmony of that which is it reporting.
Ah don’t get me started on the media!
This medium has the opportunity to do so much true good yet the media has to this day contributed to the demise of humanities respect and standards towards one and other.
I agree Suzanne, ‘ I want to be able to see truth in everything I read.’
Medicine in life – ‘say it how it is’ – no drama, no stimulation, no emotion, no reaction – facts just as it is and delivered with absolute love. What a breath of fresh air, a livingness in which I do my best to commit to.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention Suzanne, the decline in mainstream commercial media & the increase of hype & emotion has been slow and steady. Sometimes we have to go back to another era such as your example of the reporting on the train crash before we see the difference so starkly. The media seems to have gone from a slant to a spin to fabricating a whole back story and taking things completely out of context not to mention omitting the facts that don’t suit the dramatic story and sensational headline. Some journalists are out and out bullies ambushing and attacking people inciting an emotional outburst; which is their goal rather than the truth.
I agree we do have to look at our part in this and be honest have we chosen to ignore the truth in favor over an emotive story?
The ugly truth is that the general media today reports lies, we know it and we do not question it. We allow the corruption of true standards that honor and represent us all to continue to spread to all aspects of life, through our unwillingness to stand up and speak out about what we know and can feel is not true in our day to day lives.
The whole set up of the media is around drama and sensationalism. it has become the new TV – we all want excitement in our lives – and so the papers are reflecting this. But in doing so we have stripped journalism from the truth of the role – the unbiased reporting that once was.
The fact that news in the media has now become about competition for readers and viewers etc, shows a real degeneration of respect for the human being that has to endure such an imposition. And yet, it is we, the very same human beings who still continue to seek, buy and view that very same imposing media. And so, who or where is the degeneration coming from? Is it the seeker or the provider?
Yes, Suzanne. If we are living a reduced, contracted, sold out or loveless version of ourselves, how can we expect to see that reflected in every aspect of society? When we raise the standards in our own lives, we will see greater integrity and truth across the board.
I love what you share here Janet, not blaming, just bringing back the responsibility to self and us stepping up.
When news becomes a competition of how many viewers/listeners they get, it loses the purity of what news should be about – simply connecting people and keeping everyone on the same page. I wonder if competition and chasing an audience would disappear if all media was ‘free to air’ or if it is too firmly ingrained at the moment.
It goes to show that we like to react and not respond to what the news reports. We like to distance ourselves from the actual facts of what is going on so that we can stay in the city modern of our own creation and not take responsibility for how that has impacted on others.
There seems to be no accountability for this type of behaviour by the media and its Journalists, it is obvious that their code of ethics has no power at all to call for an immediate change to all the lies, mistruths, fabrication, and underreporting that goes on where lives and businesses are unfairly treated, when money and power take hold corruption enters.
It seems that the media profession does not take responsibility for how it writes, as in the tone and the words they use, which are often divisive. There had to be a choice that was made at some point to change the face of journalism into a competition, on the back of making someone a lot of money and at the expense of the reputation of the newspaper or news station.
People deserve the truth. We deserve the truth. We deserve by Living Truth in our every day. Starting from the truthful way of putting energy into media that only speaks truth and to live truth in our own lives.
“If We choose to remain deliberately ignorant to the harm being caused through the media industry, then We remain part of the cause.” well said. yet as a society, we clearly show we want the drama over the truth. Although that is starting to change.
Where there is competition there is no love. Putting someone else down in any way shape or form does not constitute love.
Imagine if we recorded all the thoughts we have and had them published! This would make the media seem restrained I think. But the chilling fact is our thoughts are communicated to the world through energy just as stories are printed. So we really ought to care what we put out there.
The media is a micro version of what we think we can hide in our thoughts. And why would these thoughts bombard our every day, what are our movements and our body really feeling to come to this result?
Beautiful Suzanne, many points reached from the angle of truth. That is: being honest about the cause is the beginning of changing things around. So far our honesty is key to actual change, not temporal lift up’s !
I have recently been doing research into another aspect, which is journalists and reports working on exposing big topics or using their role to speak out in governments or topics highly controlled and how much they are at risk of being silenced. In the press today was the news that a Russian reported was the victim of an assassination and had to fake his death – then he rocked up at his press conference that was to discuss his death, in order to expose the control of the news and what gets reported. We need to have a press that is accountable from every angle – free to report the truth but trusted to not create panic, bars or keep areas quiet by over reporting other topics.
We live our lives in a hurricane of lies – yet what we don’t want to see is it’s just a refelection of the tornado we allow inside of false ideals and beliefs. Return to stillness within and you will see the simplicity and clarity come back to you.
Jospeh I love this, from the stillness that is within everything becomes simple and life becomes full. Let go of the simpleness and choose the lies and our lives are like a hurricane indeed.
I was home alone last night and decided to watch the news and see what was happening in the world. There had just been a, what was being called a terrorist attach in Belgium and I was saddened by the way it was reported as it was all about hype and sensationalism or that is how it felt anyway, which made me realise why I had stopped watching the news a while back.
Given the quality of the stories presented by media, how they tell the story and what part of the story they tell and then not tell. We really need to ask ourselves about a free press. In western counties certainly we pride ourselves in a free press. But how free is it, when they determine which stories are not and which are not and whether or not that feel its ok to abuse someone in that process or set someone up so the community have a field day with their opinions, without even knowing what the truth is. At least in developing counties they are honest about the quality of their media organisations. Its very much hidden in western countries, plus the antipathy of the community adds to this.
Just effecting on the competition in journalism, it seems that the focus is on the journalist who gets the big breakthrough story, rather than what the story is showing us as a community. Obviously things within the community need to be highlighted and known but we are not taking these conversations deeper and asking, what does this mean for me and our community? Why is this happening? We simply move onto waiting for the next big story.
The difference described between current affairs and how they were reported decades ago is stark. We are given media that has to grab our attention span long enough for us to provide an advert, and the next click. Constant stimulation is the name of the game and we are becoming desensitised. I see this in many children’s TV programmes – they are like a hit of adrenaline they are so full-on. We are missing out on a natural way of relating and being with one another that doesn’t need drama or competition. If we keep buying into sensationalized media then that’s what will be produced.
To get to a point where we appreciate the truth in journalism means that we have to want this as our new standard. But so many of us feed the circulation of gossip that we end up with where we are at the moment – lost in what the media presents with a blurred line of reality.
I absolutely agree that we all ‘deserve to the have the truth’, from every angle. Our obedience to claim this authority to live truth, should be what impulses us to live, to call for more truth in every aspect in our lives and say ‘no’ to the normalisation of lies, abuse, corruption, drama and emotional stimulation that is what currently dominates the direction of our lifestyles. Yes, this is our responsibility, one we cannot escape and one that when we resist leave us to allow ‘all that is not of truth’ to enter our lives and become the (sub)standards we live with.
It’s truly shocking what titles and articles the media can publish, that would be considered slanderous or offensive if spoken aloud but because it’s ‘the news’ we accept the tone, and not only this but purchase and feed into these publications, demanding more to keep us up to date and give us topics to make small talk about without fully understanding the depth to which national events, disasters and ‘news’ are significant of the state of our society.
Interesting to read how reporting has changed – from the very real graphics to the factual writing, and now it is very much about suggestive images and gossip journalism. What a shame that we as a society have asked to be lied to. But then again, what if that is what we are all more comfortable receiving? Could we handle all the unbiased facts and countless tragedies that happen on a moment by moment basis?
We use the media and news as a basis to formulate opinions on and as SO many conversation starters, but in doing so we give them more power which is often, as you’ve shared, abused and manipulated.
It’s clear that the media report on stories that the readers want to hear, and if there are not these stories they make them up i.e. lie. But someone can only lie if the people they are lying to are happy to receive those lies.
When the chips are down it seems that it is acceptable that anything goes in order to survive. Sensationalised stories to stimulate people’s emotions and stir them up are the go to – readers trained to want more highs and lows. That the paper itself and its ratings have become news says how lost we are. There are loads of stories of people and everyday miracles that inspire. It’s the difference between consuming crisps and sweets for dinner or a nourishing meal prepared with integrity and love.
‘ ‘People deserve to have the truth.’’ So true and so far from what we’ve got. When I first heard about the phenomenon of fake news I had quite a child-like response of how can this be? But then we’ve always had attempts to manipulate us from those who would like to keep us from connecting with one another, stirring up emotions so we carry on fighting. If we stepped away from pointing the finger and blaming one another and were to commit to understanding each other and saying no to any abuse from any side then the fake news would lose its hold to incite us to actions made in retaliation or anger.
Recently I watched a short video about two seaside towns and how they are struggling to build a sense of community, both towns were quite impoverished, with high unemployment. One of the towns has started up a newspaper and they are only reporting on positive things and the newspaper editor said that he was sick of all the negativity that is reported daily and made into something newsworthy to sell. This particular paper was going to base itself off the community and report the positive as they felt there was a lot to be positive about. And interestingly again it was the young people of the community that said if they wanted anything done then they had to come together as a collective to get it done and not rely on outside sources to come in and save them.
It was commented at work once that I always take the conversation deeper and sometimes this isn’t welcome. The media as it currently stands is a great distraction and numbing tool or inciting of emotions which again is distraction and this is what people want when there is no connection to truth or the place of truth which is our body. I find myself dipping into a lull and stupor when I scroll through new feeds and it feels horrible but now I have the comparison between connection and disconnection. ‘Deeper’ conversations can be energising.
I have often wondered why it is deemed acceptable for journalists to risk their life for a story. Indeed many war reporters have died in war zones or as part of a terrorist attack. But without demand there wouldn’t be a supply. It is us the public who want to know what’s happening in the world, and rightly so – but to the extent that some journalists die in the attempt cannot be right, surely. However, do we even get truth delivered to us, or is it the spin put out upon the story by the various media owners and editors?
It’s evident that when you read any article you are getting much more than just ‘the facts’. Behind each story is a myriad of agendas, strategic planning and emotion in order to make an impact on a reader, and it’s important to read news with an understanding that in every case there is more going on than in front of you on the screen.
‘Is it because we demand this style of journalism first that we are then supplied or fed the lies and half-truths that we call news?’ So true Suzanne, it is a case of supply and demand and we have settled for a lot of news outlets that clearly have little or no interest in reporting facts or delivering the truth. We each have a responsibility to call this out and take action if we ever really want to see any true change.
We are being fed what the majority of humanity are looking for, it is time we called out for truth instead of the sensationalism offered by our media, stop the demand and the supply will dry up,
Journalism has lost any credibility it once had, and sooner or later people will start to realise that.
Thank you for that powerful blog Suzanne! We are never victims of any circumstances or behaviours. We in fact create them – to look at moments in our lives whenever we are searching rather for sensation than the simple truth – (gossiping instead of talking from observance e.g.) , will make a difference. As we are stopping to add energy into the pool of incitement.
The media sets what we consider the truth and reality – if its not being reported by them, it isn’t happening.
Rebecca, spot on even though most of us don’t embrace the truth that we know and still see that the media is full of lies, we in 99.99% of cases accept the media as truth, we don’t question what is printed and we don’t stop to feel is that information really true or is it the whole truth?
The moment we believe what we get presented and don´t look for the absolute truth, we are puppets of this energy.
It is a constant manipulation that we allow and that numbs all our senses.
There is a snowball effect where the media has gotten so out of hand that anyone can call themselves a journalist or even ‘investigative journalist’ giving themselves license to sell their personal opinions, grudges and views as truth without any form of back up or unbiased checking. And then once published it is blindly copied again and again by so called other ‘journalist’ without any fact checking or even knowing where the information is sourced from. And once it has been copied enough times the so called ‘truth’ is established no matter how big the lie it came from is.
Good point Carolien. Accepting something as truth because someone told you so, or because it was written in a paper doesn’t make it so. Indeed reports on ‘evidence based’ medicine are now being called into question due to spin and conflicts of interest in some areas. We can’t – and shouldn’t – believe all that is put in print or on various other media outlets. I have personal experience of twisted facts about a peace group demonstration I was in many years ago now, being written about in a local paper – much of which wasn’t true.
Only if we make the news sensationalised, dramatised, stirring up our emotions and calling to blame anyone but ourselves can we use it to comfortably compare to our own situations and feel we are doing ok. Without this, and with plain facts the truth of our way of life and it’s consequences would become very difficult to ignore.
The truth is that we all know that we rarely get the full truth of what’s going on through the media yet we’ve accepted it as ‘just how it is’. Blogs like this ask some great questions about why we’ve accepted such a low baseline of standards and responsible reporting – and that it starts with us, speaking our own truth, and bringing that truth and integrity into every conversation.
Bryony exactly our need for a fix in whatever way that is, and in this case through the media, means we overlook the lies and untruth and swallow whole the story to relieve us of what is going on.
If the surface talk and gossip is all we put out and talk about, then of course the media are going to regurgitate this and this is what we are talking about. The Media are only a part of the cycle of lies and our daily conversations are another part.
We are part of the system that churns out harmful, disrespectful and salacious gossip that is called journalism, but it is not at all true journalism, Journalism offers the facts, not misinterpretation and a smoke screen to add salacious flavour to what is represented.
This is a great point to consider “If We ALL choose to not face the fact that We are asking for what the media presents, then We ALL remain part of the cause.” as so often we complain about the media but rarely do we stop and see our part in it.
Truth is forever empowering. We have the power to choose, to create, to be responsible of the consequences, to be honest, to choose again.
Yes we have made the media a competition and a cut throat one at that! It’s all about sales and extravagant headlines, rather than what I imagine was the original intention of keeping people informed and connected. Although things appear to be much worse now, misrepresentation, slander, silencing of non-dominant opinions have been around for quite a while.
I love to feel the fact that we are all in this together and that when there is something disharmonious this means we also have to see our part in it, for there to be a salesman there need to be buyers with willing hands to buy. It also shows the fact that we can also only come out of this together as we have much power to change things even if just one starts to change.
I had not ever really considered just how much the news making / journalism industry had become about competition and about making money. Which is I am sure very frustrating for those who simply want to report on what is happening. There are many people who work with integrity and care in their jobs as journalists, but it must feel at times like they fighting a tiger or swimming upstream when it comes to working with the media. And where is their support? Because if the general population is buying in to the media circus, then we are not saying that that is what we want, as opposed to the truth?
The media landscape is beginning to open up like never before. With more independent news publications and opportunities for anyone really to start their own blog site, news story or publication. With this, news organisations can often rely on poorly researched information for their stories. We know, as consumers, of media that we do not receive the whole story, but we still consume it anyway and at times really lap it up.
I used to watch the evening news BB1 on a nightly basis and it took me a long time to actually feel the real reason why I did it, I kidded myself that I wasn’t just sitting there taking in rubbish mind numbing waste of time stuff, but watching the news, staying in touch with the world. It is all the same distracting stuff though and wouldn’t be so bad if it was all uncensored and true rather than the sensationalised bull we get to watch.
So true that we award the ‘best’ and more ‘captivating’ story but don’t stop to question what the truest story is.
To see what makes headline news these days , usually the lowest of the low and sensational rubbish that so many of us get drawn into reading ! I was looking at a magazine in a waiting room only today, that I can honestly, say there was not one item that I would have chosen to read in those few minutes that waited for my appointment. Sad but true!
Wouldn’t it be refreshing if we got to read news that was purely factual with the soul purpose of enlightening humanity? Unfortunately this does not happen much, mainly we get news that has an agenda. It’s all about adding a spin and often about blame never about inspiring true accountability and responsibility. We complain about the media but collectively we have allowed it happen.
Fast forward to the future, hopefully sooner rather than later, where we have a true soulful news channel which provides all of this and I reckon the human race is almost ready for it as there are a lot of people out there that are fed up with what we are being fed daily.
Commercialization is a movement that is going on for some time and is the one of the nails in the coffin of today’s societies. Like in this article, the media is not needed to bring that anymore what it is intended to do, to bring the news to all people untainted, just the facts. But now the media cannot procedure this level of decency and integrity anymore as it is driven by the need of increasing revenues and increasing market shares and in this pursuit it is inflaming and exciting readers to buy more of the same but in the core do not bring any good for the people.
We’ve become so drawn to sensationalism that even journalist awards are about who took the most risk rather than who brought truth to the news. Something to consider and reflect on – the way society feeds the industry is everything but truth.
As soon as the media changed to being about getting the most viewers or ‘hits’ because of advertising and other competitive reasons, then of course this will change how they report the news and it is no longer about reporting the facts but about selling a product or providing something entertaining. This puts a massive slant or bias on how the news is reported and frankly the temptation is too great it seems for the media to not twist or beat up a story so that more viewers are captured and therefore more money is made. There therefore needs to be a fundamental shift in the basis of the news
Yes Andrew, a major fundamental shift is needed indeed and to how I see it, it wil come from the readers that one day will en masse say enough is enough and will stop buying the news that is not saying anything else than the shareholders value.
If news is there to sell something it is no longer news, it is sensationalist fiction disguised as “in the publics best interest”.
True, nothing is of true expression if the ones expressing wants something from the ones receiving. If there is any hidden agenda, truth is bastardised no matter how great it sounds.
It is indeed an indictment on the industry when we have learned to not believe everything we read in the newspapers. I find it a very sorry admission and state for humanity, that we cannot rely on these forms of communication to deliver us truth.
The media is like an empire unto itself; people don’t seem to count that much, only stories and recognition for the fastest, most graphic, most enticing, most stirring tales that get embellished and sensationalised no end to capture the readers’ attention and whip up evermore emotions.
I agree Susan. News has become a business based around what sells and who has the power to influence it. This reflects back to us all what society is asking for or is happy to accept by way of news. When we all start asking for truth then things will change.
The way we currently live we repeat lies like mantras about the world and ourselves. These thoughts we allow erode our natural knowing of true beauty. Is it any wonder then that the media operates this way too? Change our inner tabloid and we may find the outer reports may change too. Thank you Suzanne.
I hear from so many people that they do not trust what is printed in the media. Yet despite of this most of us are very willing to spread the information we read as ‘fact’. It seems such information is kind of used as a safe entry to start a conversation with people, like talking about the weather – safe because then no-one has to talk about themselves.
But the question is how safe and how okay is it that we are so flippantly circulating and spreading false information which is also often at the expense of one person or another? And is it a surprise that our media continues to deliver the same quality of nonsense?
Gossip is an ugly thing, it’s completely poisonous, yet what you’re asking us to consider here is the absolute value and healing that is entirely possible form words. When they contain truth and are used with purpose we can clearly feel the difference.
The state of the media today is abysmal and we as a society have allowed this abysmality to take place.
Journalism these days does strive to inflame the reader which is hugely imposing. There are 2 general reactions to this – one is taking the bait and getting hooked in emotionally and the other is apathy towards the media and the way things are reported.
Youtube is part of the new media and there is a study that shows that Youtube’s suggestion algorithm recommends more and more extreme content. If you ask about Vegetarian food after a while you get shown Vegan food as a simple example but the same is true for politics and all other areas.
The algorithm’s main point is to keep you watching and they found this pushing more extreme content works which means they can sell more advertising.
I am not sure how to put into words just how I feel about this level of irresponsibility by google, the owners of youtube.
I recently found a newspaper article from January 2018, a paper had set in journalists undercover to an event and because of what they uncovered, the event was dispended and the horrible things that happened there which had previously remained secret where exposed. To me this was a now rare example of the power the media has to work on behalf of humanity to expose the lies and corruptions rather than taking part in it as it so often does now. The media has an incredible responsibility and potential.
“Mayhem” is a great word to describe the kind of storm the media produces incessantly. Every story is spun and exaggerated to whip the world up into a frenzy. And because it’s not simply factual but laced with opinion, emotion and exaggeration, we can’t pinpoint what is actually true anymore. The world is in trouble and we need to factually know what is happening so we can act on it – not be spun an incredible story that simply stirs our emotions.
So true Meg. The media can offer a great service in shedding light on what is actually happening so that people are kept aware of the true result of our choices in life. Unfortunately the current state of play is a long way from such a responsible and accountable relationship with what is offered to the masses, and us the public seem by and large content to remain ignorant of the truth of what is going on in our world.
You mention about us becoming numb to the horror – one of the reasons is because we feel so disempowered and helpfulness to do anything about it. The truth is that simply by opening our eyes and ears, not accepting the lies and expressing the truth we are doing all that is needed and far, far more than we realise.
Another issue may be that we are becoming more and more stimulated which per force numbs us or we have a break down. Or we don’t allow ourselves to get stimulated.
Yes absolutely: “People do deserve to know” and “People deserve to have the truth” – one that honours, unites and confirms the divine essence within us all, regardless of what topic and circumstance is being reported.
Speaking up with no expectations and no attachment to whether something changes or not is needed.
There have been many instances when I have been horrified to read articles published in newspapers as ‘news’ when I have known through first hand experience and personal contact that the contrary was true. And too often I see that facts that could be reported straight and to the point so that the reader is made aware of the situation, are embellished by the reporter, riddled with emotional twists and sensational innuendos. More and more I feel that instead of daily news these ought to be called “daily fabricated gossip”.
“Why have we made providing news a competition?” – GREAT question. The comparison and competition to sell between media outlets is enormous, and nowadays what sells in mainstream media are things with the most ‘shock value’, thus there is a constant effort to achieve this. This is a dangerous game for consumers too; if we are demanding this kind of news then the media will continue to make up more fabrications and publish lies.
We need to ask ourselves, how is the media we consume serving us? We like and trust certain programs, news organisations, personalities. But are our affiliations really serving the community or are we liking our favourite because they don’t ask us to question our beliefs and keep us in the comfort of these?
This just shows how competition is rife even with news when it is about the same thing!! When we make it about who gets there first instead of what is actually going on in the world let alone truly taking the time to get to the root of why is it going on in the world in the first place we know we have gone a long long way from where we should be.
What a different world it would be if we were able to celebrate journalists for being honest, trustworthy, reporting with integrity and honouring of the Truth. Especially as then humanity would be in a place where they are also all of those things due to the reflection.
‘Why are we worth so little as human beings that we have made it acceptable to risk our health or life for recognition?’ – This is such a great question and when you ask it like this it makes no sense what so ever, but you can see how as a society we have stepped further and further away from what we all really know we deserve, the truth not sensationalism stories at the expense of another human being.
News stories are like drug addictions that after time needs to be stronger to get the same effect. Or, we require a different flavour till even that doesn’t work. The real news is what we see and feel that is around us not what is presented to us with a hook hidden inside and expecting us to swallow it.
So often our conversation around the news enjoin with the banter rather than stopping to feel whether what is offered is the truth for all to consider. So often what is sold is a half -truth or non – truth to sell and sensationalise. When we make these conversations about truth we leave the door open to change and allow others the opportunity to either walk through or keep them closed.
Delivering the truth what an amazing opportunity the media could have instead of all the hype and sensationalism and fighting for the most coverage that happens and we ask for by not demanding the truth of ourselves firstly. A real discussion to be had and responsibility taken.
Imagine if the newspapers started publishing the truth – now that would be NEWS!
I have recently had to go through a lot of newspapers, and the different spins and takes on the same subjects you can find across different papers is huge. No more or less than if I where to put pen to paper, why is it we put so much store in what is written in a paper? So much of our understanding of life, the world and how history happened in the last century or so, comes from the news – how much do we hold true to the responsibility of that role?
“If We choose to remain deliberately ignorant to the harm being caused through the media industry, then We remain part of the cause.” This is very true. What we ignore we give a licence to continue.
Absolutely, we have allowed ourselves to be lulled to sleep and not address the first sign of deviation from their actual role in society leading us to an era where anyone can say anything and call it proven because it was published in some media.
The media has become a fight for publicity – with everyone competing for readership and ratings and using that as their marker of success – but what if a marker of success was delivering the truth and allowing people to be informed without the competition or bias?
‘People deserve to have the truth.’ the power in this simple statement is deeply profound, we – all the people – deserve the truth, yet everything in society is the opposite of that truth.
In everyday life – do we see the truth? Or do we settle for a surface story that vaguely covers sections off? If the answer to this second part is yes, is it any surprise our media behaves the same way? We always have an opportunity to go deeper to the heart of life and energy. Thank you Suzanne.
I haven’t bought a newspaper or a magazine for years but recently whilst stuck at home due to adverse weather conditions I found myself tempted by one of those gossipy celebrity magazines on the shelf at the supermarket – just to amuse and distract myself… I can see how easily we are tempted by sensationalism, drama and other peoples tales of woe, it can be quite hooking and like you say Suzanne, we perpetuate it by buying it – so let’s stop buying it, but first we have to fill our lives with so much love and purpose we don’t need the distraction anymore.
” Why are we worth so little as human beings that we have made it acceptable to risk our health or life for recognition? ”
This is a great question , even in simple day terms , people do stunts , have unnecessary surgery where they could die so they can get that extra bit of recognition.
I feel we have fallen a long way from the pure intent of journalism, to inform people, to report on what is worth celebrating and what needs to change and to connect us. Now it’s about profits and using whatever tactic to achieve this. Like all things that are not true, this will have to fall over and it will come when we stop feeding the ‘media beast’ and demand integrity again.
Especially when there is nothing to report on, the media entertain with speculations on what could or will be, asking specialists on this and that as well as asking citizens for their opinion. It´s like a big guessing contest of what the future may bring, stirring a stew of phantasies while waiting for some facts to manifest. And then the facts are discussed in the same manner, same soup but stirred the other way round. Effectively it is us who are sitting in this pot being cooked and regurgitating life instead of living it.
It’s another one of those things that if there wasn’t a demand there wouldn’t be a supply so if we didn’t demand all the sensationalism and settled for nothing but truth and decency well they would have to comply.
“So what if we were to (only ever) honour and celebrate journalists/media outlets through an appreciation of their respectfulness, decency and dedication in providing true stories for the public?” How beautiful to feel and how honouring and such a vast contrast to the ‘media mayhem’ we live with today. Bringing true responsibility to the media and reporting and our acceptance and asking for this.
It’s really something to consider when ratings wars become more important than the quality of what is reported and the choice of what to report on and how. But then how often do we put our own agenda above the purpose of what we do? I can do it in the way I want to be the one who is credited with making a difference (this makes me cringe because if I’m in there wanting to be seen there is no quality in what I do and so no difference being made!). But really I know we all bring different skills to life, some are needed at certain times and other times another person with a different set of skills and qualities is required. It is about working together. Do I always work with others I ask myself?!
No matter how subtle the lies might be, if I am lying to myself, lying in my home, lying (in anyway whatsoever) to my partners, friends or colleagues then am I really going to be able to discern the credibility of the news I am reading? This is something that I’m only just beginning to deeply comprehend. It could feel like a daunting concept and it certainly sharpens my consideration of what true responsibility actually is, but at the same time it is incredibly empowering. Much work to be done, but through this way of being, I am no longer a victim of the external nor slave to what they feed me.
We can debate and argue the issue of whether a financially incentivised news delivery service is ever able to be truthful and unbiased…and the answer is very likely to be a no….But, this ignores the great ‘benefit’ of this system. That being that, since it is us, humanity, that is putting the money into their pockets, it is also us who can take it out. We are in fact absolutely in charge of this situation and we will get whatever it is we ask for. We buy and read sensationalist, slanderous, illusionary lies…that is what gets delivered.
Hear hear, if we would not as for it it would not be delivered, it is that simple, so in light of what we have today do we dare to look in detail to what it is we have been asking for?
‘So what if we were to (only ever) honour and celebrate journalists/media outlets through an appreciation of their respectfulness, decency and dedication in providing true stories for the public?’ This would certainly change the focus and intention of the way journalists write.
Imagine that – an award for decency in journalism! And on a different note, if you were to look up journalism in the dictionary these days, do you think it would simply say “refer to sensationalism”!
“If We choose to remain deliberately ignorant to the harm being caused through the media industry, then We remain part of the cause.” and that says it all really, do we choose to see the truth or not? Do we choose to want to do anything about it?
The problem is that the media has become a commercial industry that is only looking at the bottom line and the shareholders value instead to what they in truth can bring to the world by being in service of the people that deserve to know about what is truly going on in the world.
‘Journalism these days strives to inflame the reader…’ This is a powerful point that highlights the insanity and waywardness of our lives… that we buy into a media system that actually incites and ‘inflames’ us. This is not healthy.
Indeed Mathilda, this shows clearly that as a society we are not healthy and are in need of this excitement on a regular basis to confirm and hold on to the beliefs we hold about our self created world, a world that otherwise would disintegrate and stop to exisit and instead will bring us at a place where we have to face the truth we all the time where avoiding.
Our news reflects our health. Like that. That’s a news story!
An important sharing on the media and the effects of this on us and the responsibility we have with this and what we ask for . The truth and our discernment is called for here along with the reality of what is really going on to be exposed and an integrity and honesty to be offered as our way forward.
It does very much seem that money has become a driving force in the media industry, a force that does not hold the greater values of care for people and of connecting people all over the world with each other, but rather to win ownership and success through competition. But competition always leaves people behind, because someone is always the loser while another is the winner. This is contra to true brotherhood, to unity and harmony. This is in fact contra to what many people really want – which is genuine and real connections.
Where there is supply there is demand. What I see of tabloid papers especially is sensational reporting where one has to guess the grains of accuracy in them. In the same way we demand ever more creative, novel flavours of food combinations to entertain our taste buds, the same is so of journalism. At some point we will surely saturate our senses and come back to what is true.
Brilliant questions you’ve raised here Suzanne. And, I also agree that the media is very competitive and have been this way for a long time. We need to start questioning what is going on when people are putting their lives in danger driven by recognition and competitiveness. You are certainly inspiring us to start questioning where we may be feeding this form of recognition and award.
We need to get aware of how much our perception and or opinion is actually formed by the media and the information we receive; we take it on much more than we are aware of especially when it appeals to either a need, desire, reaction, hurt or fear.
You know how internet advertising is now getting super focused in accordance with what we actually do on-line. Buy some shoes…then for the next few weeks, it’ll be shoe adverts that pop up all over your pages. Well, this is an exact reflection of what you are talking about Alex. We are fed that which we need, ask for and invite in.
The responsibility and power we have to change things by the way we live and the choices we make, one step at a time, is very inspiring.
Thanks, Suzanne. This is a powerful but simple way that we can take a stand to no longer tolerate exploitation and corruption.
The truth is we are asking not for Truth so we want sensationalism more than bland facts. Be honest about this and know this is the world we are creating and asking to have, and we cannot blame our governments or the people for not having integrity and responsibility as this is what we want too.
Awesome Adele, I agree, it is not about blame or pointing any fingers at anyone but about taking responsibility. It is also about being open to see where we may have been contributing to the untruths that is circulating in our society and to be aware that our silence is also a form of contribution.
Yes, yes and yes Adele. Pointing fingers is the simplest of cop-out’s and as long as it continues nothing will change – irrespective of who is sitting behind the desks of these media companies or political parties.
Perhaps we have missed the point of news rather than connecting us so we can support each other it has become more about entertainment, emotional sensationalism and competing broadcasters.
A USA Congress man made a speech just after the latest shootings in Florida and mentioned that there had been 17 shooting at schools in the USA since January 2018 and that we are still in February! He asked the question how bad does the situation have to get before the USA citizens say enough is enough. How much abuse are they willing to put up with before they call a stop?
We could replace the word media in this sentence for so many other words that we choose to ignore with the aim of self interest “If We choose to remain deliberately ignorant to the harm being caused through the media industry, then We remain part of the cause.” Not understanding that we are part of something even something heinous and horrible if we do not counter it in how we live and what we collude in. This is a huge lesson for us all to learn.
Both equally alarming: the lies and distortions of most news reports and people who read without discernment or question.
Not sure what is more alarming, the lies and distortions of most news reports or readers who read without discernment or question.
‘People deserve to know’ is just a cheap shot, a way to justify printing anything without sensitivity or feeling, driven entirely by the selfish needs of the reporter or the media company.
I agree – what is it we deserve to know, the truth or a superficial, twisted and sensationalised version? I am often shocked at the length reporters will go to capture every part of a famous person’s private life, splashing things across the headlines that we do not need to know, and yet we seem to get enjoyment prying into the lives of those we have elevated as somehow above us but who are in truth no different.
And the saying ‘5 minutes of fame’ that encapsulates the at times desperate acts of people who will do pretty much anything to have their brief moment in the spot light – it has twisted true reporting beyond recognition.
The trouble with this is that there are people who do not question the main newspapers or the TV news broadcasts because they were born in an age when they felt they could believe these sources. My mother was one of those people who totally believed what she had read in a newspaper and did not question the facts given. Those days have long gone and it would seem that our eyes are being opened to the true extent of the selfish needs of the media.
You could write a book about why media is what it is and does what it does today, but for me it is largely driven by a self-led agenda, one in which an individual or group of individuals seek recognition in the way of shock, fame or outrageousness. Regardless, it’s a fair step from the unbiased reporting of facts.
Much of what we consider to be our reality or world is formed by the media, it delivers and selects the information and paints the pictures of what is going on in life. We actually must assume that what we get to see or understand is at best a mere fraction of the greater picture but often even coloured by interpretation. As we cannot escape it, we need to be very discerning and also astute about how it is affecting us, molding our perspective on life and people and even influencing our behaviours. Responsibility is what is required by the media but just the same by us – to not take on and even feed what is delivered and stay decent and true and respectful to ourselves and everyone equally.
What is very alarming about our lack of media integrity and our lack of discernment in allowing inaccurate reporting in the first place is that so often media reports become incorporated in our historical records. How are we then able to decipher truth from fiction if we allow such lies to be passed of as news? Where is our integrity in ensuring that the information we pass onto our children is an accurate account of the political and social decisions we have made that underpin the lives of all our future generations.
We do deserve to have the truth, and the truth as we all know has a way of coming to the surface , it may not be instant and it may not have news channels fighting to get it out first but eventually we will all be able to feel what truth is, making all this rivalry and sensationalism thankfully a thing of the past.
Whatever we support, in whatever way that may be, is an encouragement of more of the same… it is totally up to us.
Suzanne, I love what you have presented here – the media are selling news like lollies, sugar coated and in various flavours with the intent to sell sell sell and sell some more. However the demand is also key in terms of the masses being willing to buy these lollies – so it is a responsibility that lies in the hands of both parties. The real question is, when are we going to be ready or willing to look at this and make a change on a larger scale? We can watch and we can observe and see where it is headed, and meanwhile present true media for people so that at least they have a marker for what to compare false media to.
“Since when did news become about winning and losing? Isn’t news for all? Isn’t it actually a service for everybody, equally?” – Great question Susanne! The role of the media is to provide FACTs so that people are informed about all that is happening in terms of all options that are out there. When someone in the Media presents true media, they search high and low and cover all grounds, all opinions, all facts and present them in an unbiased way allowing the readers to make their own conclusions. These days this kind of media is difficult to find, as it has turned into a sesationalist exercise that is geared towards increasing sales figures as you have shared. True media is a responsible service to the community and to society, but in the abuse of this, and the bastardisation of this, there is also a consequence in terms of loss of trust from the masses and also a large consequence in terms of the energetic imprints which we then have to clear en masse as a society.
The state of our news really reflects the state of our relationships with ourselves and others, there is a real lack of truth and love.
The US has experienced a shocking number of shootings in the short two months since the start of 2018, yet few of them have reached the news I have seen, as if we have become so desensitised to the abuse that we don’t even report them because they do not garner the response we want.
I have heard about this as well, the one that made the news recently involved school kids so it made world news but all the other mass shootings which are happening on a daily basis hardly get a mention. It is part of protocol in schools since the 1999 attack at Columbine High School in Colorado to practice what to do if a shooter is on the loose and they are considered the mass shooting generation. Who wants to hear about news that happens on a daily basis unless it has an extra twist to it?
“What we are silent about is what we accept.” Very potent words Suzanne, and likewise what we repeat and circulate that is not true, is a contribution to what will be accepted as ‘normal’.
When I look back at the time I was growing up in the 50’ and 60’s my memory is of the news being a “service for everybody, equally”. We were presented with the facts, very little sensationalism and the smallest amount of celebrity gossip. How times and the presentation of the news has changed, but we can’t blame anyone for the “media mayhem” we have now, as we have invited it into our lives with the media companies simply meeting the demand from us, the public. The only way things will change is for us to stand up and say no more.
What is our part in creating and fostering this false news? Without a demand is there a market?
Media today is about financial survival as the competition is ferocious and much of the old media had to fire most of its journalists. Not an easy environment to work in.
Very true – what we are silent about we implicitly agree and put our name to, especially when we are well aware of what is going on.
It’s as if real news is competing with television for the public audience to engage and subscribe to their channels. This is definitely one of the reasons why the news can be hugely emotional and dramatic, and why stories are chopped and changed by the media to make them sound more enticing.
Well this article is an example of true news if I ever saw one. I was looking at an article on a mass school shooting in America yesterday with no shock or horror as these horrific events have become an almost daily occurrence, I felt disconnected. When I inadvertently clicked on an image within the article a video played showing students terrified in a classroom while a gunman shot students outside. Well I was shocked, I cried – I couldn’t look away but in a way I was glad to feel something because I have absolutely become numb to the horror we are all living with. I don’t feel news has to be reported this way as it doesn’t get to the core of the issue or show respect and understanding for the horror these people have experienced. The real story is the fact that we as a society have allowed these things to occur and we need to feel the mess we have created in order to change it. I’m not sure how bad things will need to get before we all say enough is enough.
The media seems like an unreachable power that cannot be challenged or questioned because it is just so big – and yet, it is in the end at the mercy of the people who provide it the full to continue and to grow. Those who do not want anything more than a ‘good read’ are happy to trade the truth for the simulation of a story no matter how false – it is like we are so craving stimulation of some kid be it anger or hate or happiness or gossip, that we have blurred the lines between reality and fantasy, between what was once the realm only of fiction novels and not journalism.
The fact that the media industry is so competitive exposes where their priorities lie.
Where is the line drawn, that what the people need to know and personal privacy and who decides? There was another school shooting in the US this week with 17 killed. There have been eight school shootings that have had injury or deaths in just seven weeks and ten more with shots fired! This shooting was the first national one we have heard about in the UK. Who has drawn the line that has to be crossed to be newsworthy?
It is important that we thoroughly realise the extend to which the media has lost its independence and capacity to bring truth and in-depth reporting. Not only is it run a by big and powerful corporations but the economic drive to get as many readers as possible combined with the public want for drama and emotion has created an environment in which it would be wise for consumers to discern everything we read, hear and watch.
‘Why have we made providing news a competition?’ – it’s one aspect of the whole, we have made Life into a competition.
Super powerful blog Suzanne, exposing the part we play in supply and demand. A moment to stop, observe and take responsibility for the way the world is, then move in a way that offer change.
“If We choose to remain deliberately ignorant to the harm being caused through the media industry, then We remain part of the cause.” its easy to say we are not part of it but as this point makes so well, unless we stand up for what is not true we are part of allowing the untruth to be there.
Drama in the newspapers is what people look for these days – and so the supply must meet the demand. So we must ask where are people at in life when this is what they thrive on?
“Enter Universal Medicine in the News: The True History. This is a website written by people who have first-hand experience of press abuse and has been written “to restore journalism to the decency of its purpose” ” – amazing articles, written to inform and without imposition or trying to prove anything nor trying to convince nor trying to sound sensational. Real facts and real informing – leading the way!
I wonder if the trend we are seeing in the media going to more and more extremes of publishing news has anything to do with humanity’s increasing levels of numbness, distraction, apathy and general given up-ness – that we require stronger and stronger ‘doses’ of news to break through and shock us?
We had a similar development a century ago when the yellow press got going. That was reduced a bit by publishers realising there was a market for more highbrow news. One of the problems is that it is currently not practical to pay a flat fee for reading the news and getting access to multiple publishers that way.
It is not okay having fabricated nonsense which often falsely accuses and maligns people called ‘news’. If we are trading gossip, personal opinions and innuendo lets be open and honest about it. And let us keep it separate from actual facts that support us be aware of one another and can potentially bring us closer to each other.
I love your call to action Suzanne and I also love the link to “Universal Medicine in the News: The True History” for anyone who has not read the articles on this website it is well worth a read for this is what real investigative journalism reads like. Here is the link – https://www.universalmedicine.news/
We have made life into a competition where it’s all about getting ahead, and to get ahead, it means being perceived to be ‘better’ than other people. Unfortunately, in the pursuit of ‘individual’ ‘success’ many journalists have compromised their ethics and deviated from the very clear mandate that used to exist in journalism – to write an unbiased account of the facts, of the truth, enabling readers to make up their own minds about whatever was being written about.
It’s certainly a very sad reflection on where we have allowed ourselves to get to as a society when the straight forward factual reporting of a catastrophic event isn’t enough anymore – that things need to be sensationalised to grab our attention as, we become number and number to all the horrendous events taking place in our world.
“For a week or two or permanently, don’t buy, tune in, subscribe, like, share, engage in the fodder available out there and see what happens…” So simple and yet rarely put into action, we have a lot of power through our day to day choices and actions.
There is much to be considered in what you have shared here, rather than just blindly agree, it feels like just observing for a week or so and seeing through a different perspective would be a good experiment. To consider the whole and our part in that.
Sensationalism sells, and exposes who has sold out. When we choose to express news via sensationalism, it means we have sold out on Truth and Integrity and made life about a false hype. However, as Suzanne has so beautifully shared, it is the choices of the masses that continue to feed the behaviour of the journalists.
Awesome expose Suzanne, and a call for action from people in terms of asking for more integrity and truth from the media.
Another level to our complicity in all this has been accentuated by the internet. The speed at which we now expect and consume news, the lack of true discernment that we bring to what we are reading, the ever-decreasing attention span and thus the need for ‘sensationalised’ news to capture our attention…all of this contributes to the reckless, irresponsible, ill-researched and utterly irresponsible news that we are now delivered. True news is found in connecting with people and being open to see the full extent of where humanity is at.
Words of Gold Otto: “True news is found in connecting with people and being open to see the full extent of where humanity is at.”
Many people use Facebook as a news source these days. If used in truth this has the potential to be a great news source, but often it is lies and fake news that are posted. We then don’t discern and presume it to be true.
Great blog Suzanne exposing the corruption we call journalism. Loads of people spend hours daily reading magazines and newspapers, they love it and believe what they read. They do not question it because they enjoy and get off on all the drama and lies that are written. As you said supply and demand is the game at play.
That’s interesting as it’s quite clear in reading the newspaper the level of drama, sensationalism and emotional hooking that goes on.
Great call to responsibility for what we have allowed the media industry to become. Until we are willing to renounce the titillation that has become common fodder for our eyes and ears and switch off/stop buying it nothing will change. The current media tactics are driven by the constant search for more income so choosing to disengage from what is on offer is a powerful statement.
The whole online platform feeds on lies, this is the predominant energy that feeds it. There is no need to try to change a system or an industry, the force is too great—but we do not need to keep feeding into this energy with the slightest reaction, interest or engagement—and rather we could use this energy to express from the energy of Truth and love. This is our responsibility. I am not perfect in this as I do react at times, but the reaction tells me I have held onto a hurt rather than just feeling the grief of holding back Truth. I love this learning and this gradual change of pattern from what energy I choose.
The harm of the media is felt in every front page headline I read. Today’s main story was of a huge charity potentially covering up the abuse of vulnerable people it is set up to help. I could feel there was absolutely no care for all those concerned. There was just a fervour of righteousness being created by the paper so it could ride the crest of it in it’s bid to sell copies. I could feel its cry of condemn and burn the culprits in a warped call to responsibility. But at no time would it contemplate asking how did this happen? What is our collective responsibility in this? No, it was there to make people into heros or villans, and ‘heros to zeros’ with no love or care for them or the reader. And the invitation to the reader to take on judging others is there because we prefer the comfort of being better than another to seeing we have a part in how life is for everyone.
That is an insidious amount of money for to play a commercial once in a few hours! ‘the going rate for a commercial during the 2017 USA Superbowl was US $5.02 million (1)’ we have so got our values wrong.
Ask and you shall receive is a powerful call to responsibility. We can point the finger and blame the media all we want, but at the end of the day we are the paying customers that all too eagerly consume the proffered lies, sensationalism and abuse. If we want it to change, we have to call for something different, and not just something better.
Personally I haven’t purchased a newspaper for years and do not miss them one iota. The days of reading sensibly reported news have, it is apparent long gone. What a shame that such an important tool for humanity is so widely used and abused.
We don’t need all the sensationalism, emotion and drama of the news… when truth is presented people can feel the devastation, sadness, etc – we are human, we can feel these things, there is no need to hype it up. The only reason it is hyped up is to make it more dramatic to make more money.
In reality, news is news – end of story… however it has become a business, and a very competitive one at that, and that is where we have gone wrong. News has become money and not just about presenting the facts of what is going on in the world.
“Why should I have to discern what’s true or not, reading with skepticism or doubt, knowing facts may not have been verified, skimming through the emotive words and phrases to get to the real truth?” This is also big in science where they always tell us to look at our resources and see if it is reliable or not. Yet we are not looking at why we have unreliable resources and don’t stop the presses so to speak to evaluate what is going on and why people feel like putting false information out there and not just what is true.
Wouldn’t it be great if newspaper stories were written without sensationalism… just the facts, with non-bias and presenting all sides of the story? The reader would be left to make their own judgement call about the topic they are reading without imposition or favour of an angle.
I used to believe what I read in the papers until, on several occasions, I witnessed friends being interviewed for articles and when they were published it did not represent anything that they expressed. The journalists in all incidences had their own agendas and wrote what ever they wanted to, which were lies. I never buy newspapers nor magazines as there is no way I will support this corruption.
This sentence is a whooping ouch to humanity Suzanne
“Why are we worth so little as human beings that we have made it acceptable to risk our health or life for recognition?”
This sentence can be applied to not only journalism but to everything we do. It seems to me that as a society we have risked our health in order to get that recognition that we all seem to desire so much. Rather than believing that we are enough just as we are no need to try.
Newspapers have always given me a headache, Television has always made me depressed. I have lived for most of my life without either. It is totally possible to do so and has done wonders for my mental health.
Yes indeed, what kind of world are we living in where we all know we are being fed lies, and yet most of us do nothing to change the fact? This article is a great wake up call for us all.
It is our ‘blind eye’ turned that feeds the source of such circulation energy, and in that relationship we ask for more.
A combined action of not engaging in what the media delivers is exactly what is needed. While we buy, view and engage in the half truths or blatant lies in the media, we keep the supply going. Businesses respond to demand so we need to be clear and aware of what we are asking for.
We like immersing ourselves in stories and dramas that help us ignore what’s actually going on for ourselves.
The trouble is people believe what they read, and it seems once it’s in print it must be true. We have got to a point where we no longer say, hang on a moment is there more to this story, or that something doesn’t feel right here.
The regulation about having cigarette packaging state that it can kill you and the numerous educational messages about the harm of smoking did not stop people buying cigarettes which keeps the tobacco industry going. In parallel with what we are fed by the media, I have heard numerous times how people don’t trust the media, especially when it is reporting sensational news and gossip about individuals, yet such magazines are among the most ‘popular’ when you look at how many are on the supermarket shelves which means people are none the less choosing to buy them.
This is all significant because we can not blame some bad and evil force ‘out there’ messing up our world. As always we have to clearly look at our own part.
“People deserve to have the truth. “ I agree. However there is a school of thought that says we get the leaders – and the press – that we deserve. If no-one bought the papers or listened to the reports of the journalists, editors and media barons who spin the news, they would maybe give us truth.
If the media printed truth and only truth, my question is would people actually want to read it all? Media has made sensationalism and hooking stories what sells, and what appeals but it is truth that really needs to be printed.
In a world that is increasingly stressful, exhausting, high tension and anxiety, rising levels of abuse and at times horrific behaviour, it is as if we are trying to numb it all out rather than truly feel it all and work to change it. In numbing out, it then takes more and more to stimulate a response in us, a feeling of excitement or anger or sadness, the distraction of the emotion to stop us feeling what is really going on.
If we truly felt everything that is going on in our world, then we would all die instantly from a broken heart, knowing that it is us that have created it.
As the consumers and audience for the media we have a responsibility to DEMAND truth as opposed to the lies, drama and the mayhem that are currently being published… If we didn’t buy it, the media would not supply it.
This is a great expose of the circus the media is and that we want the media to be. It seems like we have made the world our stage to perform, everyone with their own story and play, and have long forgotten how to simply be with each other and work for one common good.
Esther that’s a great point, the stories that play out from the news to the drama are so prolific that its easy to forgot the importance of simply building a connection with another person.
A great sharing Suzanne and brings the reality to what is happening in journalism and the media that we are part of and calling for.The fact that we all deserve the truth and want this is something not being shown and called for by what we accept and allow ourselves to be taken in by and invested in. The change is much needed by us all for a life of truth and the simple facts of what is really going on and for us to accept only the truth with a love and grace for humanity.
The first recorded use of propaganda was used in 515BC as a way of influencing others to believe in some lie for hidden reasons. The more things change, the more they stay the same. As this article shows, it is well past time to expose the truth of the what the media industry has become.
Our whole ethos of life focuses on ‘black and white’ ‘right and wrong’. What if the greatest issue with our society is judgement? This keeps us in a condemning space instead of equally appreciating everyone in our race. Waking up to know every judgement we make is corrupting our world – wow now that is news worth reading. Thank you Suzanne.
So much of our media news is smoke screen that distracts us away from real and important events, it is such a huge game of manipulation and control. The real skill lies in being able to read between the lines, not the lines them selves.
It’s important to honour our own integrity and stop supporting media publications or broadcasts that manipulate the public for personal gain. If we allow it to continue to be a part of our lives we dishonour ourselves and run the risk of eroding our own integrity and decency.
Every thing that exists outside of us is a reflection of what’s on the inside of us. The current state of our media is a very ugly reflection of the malignant tumours that we have been cultivating within.
We need to always feel before and while reading to discern if what is offered to us as a truth, is it or not.
And this goes with everything in life we need to constantly be reading and discerning everything and so can then respond to what is going on rather than getting caught up in it and so reacting.
“We will continue to go around and around, most likely sinking lower and lower into the stakes of indecency as We demand and are supplied what we call for”.
Indeed we will and all along blame anyone but ourselves for the nosedive we are taking. We are being asked to take a deep and honest look at what it is we are asking for and if we are willing to no longer consume that which we criticise.
“Journalism these days strives to inflame the reader” – So true Suzanne, and what’s interesting is that this is setting an example for face-to-face conversation too, where the way in which more and more people express is aggressive, loud and very graphic in an effort to achieve the ‘shock factor’ with an audience. I’ve noticed this particularly in conversations about politics, abuse and what’s going on in the world.
Suzanne, the fact that news has become a competition is evident in the media trying to out do each other with more and more sensational stories – each one trying to get as many viewings or sell as many papers as possible. This is not true news but a bastardised form of what is happening in the world, that has become about profit rather than being about humanity and sharing the truth.
‘Don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story’ indeed, the embellishment and false claims that sew together certain ‘reports’ or exposés just fill the void – that of the journalist and that of the 24/7 ever hungry media monster.
I remember a time years back when a friend and I climbed a mountain on Australia Day and on that day a well-known politician was also climbing it. We reached the peak before they did and as they reached the peak, we left as there was a bit of a media circus with them up the top and we did not feel to be part of it. Towards the end of the path, we got caught in torrential rain. The next day I read the article in a national newspaper about this politician up the mountain and one of the last sentences was… fortunately he did not get caught in the rain. I was like..what the?!?!?? It was my first first-hand experience of lies in the media, and what was so weird is why would they even add anything about the rain. He so would have got caught in the rain as we left before they did and we got caught, and who really cares if he did or did not, so why even report it? and why even lie about it?? The wool came off my eyes that day.
A very good example of how little things are added to the story to make it more exciting, thrilling, enticing.
The sad thing about social media is that there tends to be a plethora of false news, for example about the British Royal Family, there is gossip that is specifically designed to attract people’s attention and to go viral on Facebook. Same with conspiracy theories, evoking emotions and feelings of victimhood. Sadly, with reference to Hurricane Irma, there were a few incidents of buildings crashing that were from previous events – how are we to tell what is true? Our clairsentience if we use it well will help us to discern the truth of any media report.
I remember when the first reality TV program came out in the UK in 1997, I watched and joined millions of viewers who seemingly enjoyed this voyeuristic humiliation and exploitation – I felt rocked by how low humanity was prepared to go!
Yes, the way we live is so blatantly shown everywhere, and yet we do not stop and truly see but are being absorbed and consumed by all of it and continue to demand more.
News should be a service, not a money-maker, but this is what happens when we put money before people.
Yes, I agree Michael. This is also shown in the many awards we have everywhere, it shows how very much we have made everything about ourselves instead of all of us.
‘While watching some footage on Hurricane Irma wreaking its havoc through the Caribbean and the USA in September 2017, the television broadcasters were lamenting that the radio broadcasters were ‘losing’ and ‘losing out’ because people were tuning into their TVs for the coverage the visuals of TV offer, rather than listening to radios. Immediately, I furrowed my brow.’ If I choose to engage in the news I far prefer listening to the news on the radio than on television, it feels less dramatic and sensationalist and closer to the truth. I love the idea though of not feeding the media and seeing how journalism would change.
If the news truly expressed the truth and did not hold an ounce back, humanity would get to see where we are truly at as a society. I would say news as it is serves to aide the ignorance and abet the lies that abound this world.
It was many years ago that I stopped engaging with the media. I haven’t owned a TV for around 20 years. I never buy a paper, and I don’t listen to the radio. If I happen to read someone’s paper on the bus I am hit with the energy of it. I either feel repelled or I feel enticed and drawn in. The media certainly do not present truth, so why would we want to engage in lies. I find it best to stay clear of it and feel for myself what is going on around me. News travels by word of mouth too, and it is up to us to feel what is true or not.
I stopped reading newspapers in my mid-twenties as I found the gossip and sensationalism very irking, but if news were to report with non-bias, factual truth and keep it simple I would return to reading them.
We have all, always been able to read the truth, we have just chosen to ignore our body and read what someone else has interpreted the truth as and has put it in print!
We do have to know what is going on in the world, but I for one would like the facts without the built up fiction and sensationalism. I was limiting my television watching to the six o’clock news but realised that this was just another distraction and time to check out.
I agree “We do have to know what is going on in the world” but I feel it would be quite helpful for all of us to not have any news for a while to give us space to see what is going on around us and start connecting with the many people in our lives.
To me, when we look at the media today, it is a reflection of how we are as a society. In general we do not want to have the truth but instead we want the story that confirms us in our wayward behaviour. And because such behaviour can only be sustained by repetition and even more enticing insidious behaviour, the media follows the demands.
“If We ALL are not part of the answer – the change we want to see – then We ALL remain part of the cause” . . . . this is a good point. We can do our part by making the change within ourself that we most want to see and how we do this is by looking at everything that really ‘pushes our buttons’ as a reflection pinpointing what needs to be looked at and changed within ourself.
Great article Suzanne which asks us to be responsible for the media that we have. The more we voice through our actions our refusal to put up with what is presented by the media the more they will be forced to change.
Even when the news is not true, we are still influenced by what we have read or have been told and that is even more damaging than what has been written. Like Chinese whispers, the more a story is circulated the more flavoursome it becomes and in the end we are left with ‘news’ that hardly represents the initial sharing.
It is up to us to call journalists to account and change the shape of the media.
The world operates on a supply-and-demand system. The news is no different. They supply what we are demanding.
I agree there is the corruption of media and that has to be exposed. Working in the media industry myself, I also wonder how our abusive systems towards ourselves and others can truly produce journalism that is responsible and with integrity. We cannot change the system or tell anyone to do this or not do that, but as a part of the industry I can take my responsibility to self care and live my life in respect and decency. As a consumer I cannot be told what to do, but if my life is about integrity and responsibility, it is natural that I would not give my energy to tabloid journalism, it simply does not interest me.
Brilliant article Suzanne. We can’t ignore that fact that we collectively are responsible for where the media industry is currently at, it is highly competitive, drama driven, sensationalised and profit driven. If we buy this form of media, listen to it, or even ignore it, we are contributing to the harmful aspects of this industry especially when we do not speak up about it. Thank you Suzanne for raising our awareness and inspiring us to take responsibility for what is occurring in the media world.
Has over-stimulation become so much our normal that we have reached the point where we are so exhausted we need stimulating foods and the media hype, emotion and drama, to keep our nervous systems going to maintain our energy levels ‘up’ throughout our day?
It’s not at all surprising that our news has turned into a competition, as pretty much our whole lives have become a competition. We go through life with an almost permanent feeling of comparing and subsequently grading ourselves against another. Be it in our looks, with our jobs, our partners, our cars, our clothes, our houses etc. We know where we ‘rank’ according to those around us and that ranking is felt by women and men alike. In addition to that we have organised competition in our sport and our education systems, plus so much of our entertainment entails competition; there are endless TV programs that get people to complete with one another, from cooking to building a house. But the truth of the matter is, that there is not an ounce of truth in competition, it is a very unnatural way of being for us when we are living from our essence.
Everything in life has to be super-sized, our food, our drinks, our entertainment, our sport, our transport, because our nervous systems get bored with the level of stimulation that they’re used to and crave more of a hit in order to ‘get off’, hence our news also needs to ramp itself up, otherwise we won’t feel like we’ve had a ‘hit’.
Suzanne what you have shared is the truth. The media provides what the people want and until we want something different, then they will keep producing what they are currently providing. And currently the majority of the people don’t want to know the truth and so we shall continue to read newspapers and watch programs that don’t offer us the truth, which allows us to remain comfortably numb to the bigger truth of life and thereby delay taking responsibility for our part in what we see in the news.
“Why have we made providing news a competition?” suzanne that’s a great blog and point that made me really consider how i see different programs, for example, the very fact that we ‘trust’ the news and think it more important and more valuable that other ‘dramas’ mean we ignore the fact that just like everything in the media – its about ratings and money.
And it feels like the discernment comes from our heads rather than feeling the truth from our bodies… how often do we energetically discern if something in the news feels true? If we did the ratings would certainly drop and so would the money!
What has changed in us that the rawness of the simple facts of news are not enough anymore, but that we need drama and stimulation to almost feel something. Almost like we said no to our awareness and sensitivity in such a harsh and strong way that we can’t feel enough without exaggerating and force.
It does make me laugh when people buy the newspaper then complain about the contents. Oh the irony… but we don’t like to see our responsibility in the bigger picture much, if at all.
As a species, we seem to thrive on gossip and sensationalism… it is printed because we lap it up. It is up to us to change what we read and how we receive it, only then can journalism change.
Very true Michelle. It’s often easier to blame the perpetrator (the media) without seeing our part, which is that we have been requesting what has been delivered, simply by reading, sharing and purchasing the product.
The truth and true purpose of journalism is not being addressed while we live in a way that isn’t addressing the true purpose of life and why we are going round in circles that avoid the truth in favour of relief and distraction.
Yes, Suzanne, we like to embellish our stories so that we can distract ourselves from the truths we do not want to feel and take responsibility for.
“So what if we were to (only ever) honour and celebrate journalists/media outlets through an appreciation of their respectfulness, decency and dedication in providing true stories for the public?” Oh how refreshing this would be!
“the simple bringing of news and information for the awareness of humanity” – hit the nail on the head Suzanne, this is the way ‘media’ will have to go once it’s hit the bottom and once we start asking for truth.
Great point Suzanne that providing an overview of news is about a service and not competition and when it becomes competitive then inevitably there are winners and losers and truth is the first casualty and in that we are all losers. However as you point out we have a choice in that we can choose not to indulge and further encourage these lies and abuse. I have been fooling myself that BBC radio news is not so bad but it is just a different flavour of the same soup, thank you for calling this out and suggesting we commit to not feeding it in any way – my radio will be getting a well earned break!
I reckon they should give journalistic awards for journalists and media organisations that are the most truthful and factual rather than just awards for going into dangerous places.
What a great website you have started here which gives a voice and an opportunity back to the people to counter the media monopoly on information and news and also to wake the public up out of their apathetic slumber when it comes to what they are willing to accept as news.
How things have changed since 1947, I love what you shared about the reporting then. How far have we gone off track to be wanting sensation after sensation and drama after drama, why is it that we do not ask for the truth?
Indeed Fiona… ‘why is it that we do not ask for the truth?’ Maybe once we are totally honest and truthful with ourselves then we will inspire that same honesty from others. Demanding it from others hasn’t ever worked.
You’ve hit the nail on the head, Suzanne, writers, go out of their way to inflame the reader and to incite emotions. No longer are we left alone to just read the facts and come to our own conclusions.
And we celebrate and applaud this kind of ‘story telling’.
The extent of the sensationalism in our media today simply shows us how much we don’t want to know the truth otherwise we would never have allowed our various media channels to broadcast any misleading or false information in the first place.
” Perhaps it is Us that is both the cause and the problem.” To me this is true Suzanne and yes when we can acknowledge this then too are we able to make a change, otherwise, as you say we will continue to add to the situation the media is in and allow it to become even worse too.
How have we allowed truth in print to get to the point that if you don’t like what you read, just read something that presents what you want to hear? Eldridge Cleaver said; ‘There is no more neutrality in the world. You either have to be part of the solution, or you’re going to be part of the problem.’
Has it become that the truth will not fulfill the needs of those wanting excitement and sensationalism, people that want real life to be like their virtual world of games and action movies. The truth is ‘the truth’ is so absolutely priceless, I would love to live in a world where absolute truth in the media was a given, where we could trust in everything that we read in the newspapers and see on TV without having to discern every word. And the thing is we can all make it this way by not indulging in all the untrue media that is out there for without a demand there can be no supply.
“…people that want real life to be like their virtual world of games and action movies…” Yes, I agree with you Kev. There is a movie out about an aircraft that made an emergency landing on the Hudson River. But this movie, while much is word verbatim what was actually said (from recordings), the movie created a scenario that was high drama, and was completely fabricated. I imagine much in the way the media exaggerates and uber-stimulates its stories, for the entertainment factor. I would have thought the true story of how a pilot managed to land into a freezing river (no floats!) without killing a soul was dramatic enough, without the need for further man-made drama to excite viewers.
it seems this need for drama is everywhere, and being demanded for everywhere.
So true Kevin, if we stop buying this news than they will change quickly their way of reporting. So actually we must say that looking at the media and what they deliver is a reflection of our societies, not wanting to know the truth but instead asking the media to give the story to get enticed by so the truth can can be longer avoided, the truth we one day have to face in its grandness and simplicity that it is.
There is a phenomena known in health and emergency care known as vicarious trauma. This means that if I listen to someone’s traumatic story I could potentially relive this myself as if I had experienced it. From what you have written here Suzanne it almost feel like the way that a story is told and repeated can potentially and does affect the well-being of the listener. At the moment very few are taught to observe and not absorb that which is around us. This also applies to media, very much so. For those whose responsibility it is to tell the stories of others, the way stories are told are very important, to ensure that it is just the story that is told.
Wow Jennifer Smith. Reminds me of music – if words have the capacity to affect the wellbeing of the listener, then it follows music would too – more vibrations out there.
I may not buy, tune in, subscribe, like, share but it is engaging in the fodder that I have to be careful with. It may not be worldwide or global but losing myself in any way, shape or form to a story is a demand and it is this demand that I need to address within my own life.
“If We ALL choose to not face the fact that We are asking for what the media presents, then We ALL remain part of the cause.” This fact alone We ALL have to swallow and digest Suzanne as it is so true. To be aware of the fact that we are part of this problem is for me one way out of this problem and therefore I love it that you have wrote such a truthful blog about it.
This responsibility starts with ourselves. Are we expressing truly truth and always? There is no perfection sought but the intention and commitment to bringing Truth is important.
The state of our media and news is a reflection of what we are asking for. No where near the truth and as much distractions as possible.
If we honestly wanted the truth we would demand it… however I wonder if we like all the emotion and drama as it creates a great distraction away from what is not working in our own lives?
I haven’t had a TV for the past 15 moths and it was only used to play movies for years before that, and I don’t listen to the radio… and yet you still hear about all that’s going on in the world – through conversations, and it can be easily seen on the internet if you are so inclined. We don’t miss out on anything just because we don’t have a TV – there is so much more to life than screens!
Thank you Suzanne. A great reminder we have a choice. I have gone weeks and months without subjecting myself to media, TV, magazines. It is a beautiful thing to step away from it all and allow silence and stillness to nourish me. To sustain this long-term, I’m not there yet.
So true Suzanne… if we stay silent how can we sit back and expect things to change?!
It’s very true Suzanne. We feed the media monster because we love the tittle-tattle that it produces because it fills in the holes where our love and respect should be.
Suzanne it’s a brilliant point. It is about the consumer not the producer.
I actually feel both sides here have an equal responsibility – both the public and the media themselves and both could intiate changes we all need.
Ultimately it all comes down to control and power justling for the top readership and audience rather than keeping the truth and facts at the forefront. Yet we gulp it up and demand it and so they feed us. As Suzanne has said if we stopped consuming it what would happen?
‘The more terrorising, horror-full, exposing, painful, weird, attention seeking, alarming or impactful the reporters/journalists can make a story, the better.’ This simply shows our addiction to the dramas of life as a way of distracting us from the truth of what’s really going on, the devastation in our bodies because of the way we are living, the catastrophic relationships that exist in our homes and our workplaces, not to mention political, financial and drug wars on a world wide scale.
‘People deserve to have the truth’ that is very true but as you say what are we actually demanding and asking for. We want the sensationalism and the drama so essentially have something to talk about and bring to the party. For me the questions begs what about us, surely we are worth bringing to the party without needing any fillers so to speak. The truth is always there if we want to see we just need to choose to see it.
Great article, you can feel that the reason that the media gets away with this is because generally speaking we like the circulation energy, we like feeding off the drama and the irresponsibility this brings as it supports us to avoid truly living in a responsible way.
We ALL…no wriggle room or but, but,but in that. It is up to ALL of use to change the demand.
Perhaps our seeming numbness to horror comes as a reaction to the inciting nature of the media. I’m not a fan of modern day reporting and find that I don’t trust the media. Because of this I find myself tuning out to what is going on.
Those who do nothing are complicity in the way the media is acting, so as you say Susan, lets everyone vote with not supplying them with our time, energy or money and then things will start to change.
Greg great point, I know my relationship with the media is one where I seek it out to find out what is going on, but then how much do I really listen and how much do I discern of what is and is not true in the media. The reality is the news media is the same as the fictional movie media, its designed to answer our requests to be satisfied, to be filled up on something.
No doubt our behaviour adds to the state of play. We get what we put out there, so if emotional storytelling is what we are asking for, then we get it. But in truth – reporting should be factual – and until we say NO to what is not, then we won’t get that. I love the idea of not engaging with this kind of media – it makes so much sense and allows more space for the real factual content.
We get what we ask for.
Thank you Lucy for sharing these simple yet powerful words. The less we read and discuss the lies the less space they have to circulate in our communication with one another.
Journalism relies on inciting our outrage, so if we deal with our ‘in-rage’ ie. the rage we feel towards ourselves for having left ourselves behind when we chose external recognition over our own love, and begin to treat ourselves with love, decency and respect, so too will we express this with others and have no outrage left to fuel the media fires.
And there are certain papers designed for certain reader’s triggers of outrage, it’s very specific and engineered to hit the groups with collective ideals and beliefs, and to play on them, it’s called a ‘target audience’ for no lame reason.
If we are all a part of it, simply by allowing it, then what are we getting out of it? Could it be that we like and enjoy the distraction, diversion and stimulation, so that we don’t have to feel an emptiness within – the lack of connection in our lives to something deeper and more meaningful? We absolutely need to know what’s going on in the world that we’re all equally a part of, but there’s a way of being involved and learning about what’s going on, and one that is simple and straightforward, and doesn’t need us to react or buy into the drama and sensationalism, and so doesn’t take us further away from connecting to who we are.
Right now we choose distraction, also referred to as entertainment, and numbness. TV watchers enter a state where they use even less energy than if they did nothing as just one example.
People may deserve to have the truth but are they asking for it?
A potent question Christoph. As the article so clearly presents there has to be a demand first before the supply is provided. Sooner or later we will have to face up to our responsibility and address our part.
Interesting proposition – to not click, like, share news for two weeks and see what happens. I can’t fathom doing that ! We are so used to news coming from all angles, being informed, etc but the quality of that information is most definitely the question we need to be asking and discerning what you share and read is definitely required in life not just in the news.
A great blog Suzanne, posing much needed questions about the quality of reports and articles in the press that are published nowadays.
The demand for ‘gutter press’ writing continues to serve in numbing out from things we don’t want to feel. It is far easier to point the finger of blame and judgment externally to ourselves, rather than take action, stand up for truth and call out the slippery slope that humanity is sliding down through accepting this lack of integrity in journalism.
“The more terrorising, horror-full, exposing, painful, weird, attention seeking, alarming or impactful the reporters/journalists can make a story, the better.”
I agree with you Suzanne that as an overall race of human beings we are becoming more desensitised which means we need more stimulation and vice versa. We are going around in circles. I am doing the same things daily over and over again myself even though they are harmful to where I’m at all to avoid the more awareness I have.
Suzanne, it is very humbling to feel the responsibility we all have, demanding sensationalistic news.
Just like one war should have been enough for us to go ‘hang on a minute’ but instead we have carried on as long as we have, we seem to be abusing the cyclical nature of our existence completely. Instead of learning from our mistakes, we choose to indulge and repeat the same mistakes until we become numb to them and no longer recognise their off-ness, and because those moments of ‘whoops’ are no longer stimulating enough we need them to be more extreme to be ‘newsworthy’ (= attracts more clicks hence the ad income). The ‘news’ is entertainment and no longer serves us truth and provides us with a moment to come in contact with what is truly going on in the world. It may scratch the surface of curiosity every now and then, but it hardly touches us at the core these days. I am not surprised we are needing more sensationalized stories to keep us entertained – life lived in a body that is empty of true essence is boring, life without a sense of purpose is boring. We may think that we are merely a consumer, an audience to this world, but we are the ones that make up the One.
I was overhearing a conversation between two young people the other day, one who had just watched a documentary on an old but shocking news story. I was shocked that so many, many years later, the media felt the need to dredge the horrible details back up, not in one single article but a two-part documentary, interviewing the bereaved family members and basically rehashing all the emotion and drama. Hearing the young person talk about the event, I really got to see how their perspective was totally framed and filled in what they watched, like being spoon fed all their information and knowledge rather than reading beyond what they were being presented with. The media has such a huge responsibility in what and how they present the world, to ensure they are presenting the truth and not just their version of reality because before long people will assimilate this into their version of reality.
Great point – why do we even have to think there might be un-truth publicly distributed as news? That is an indictment already.
What a terrific, thought provoking article – thank you Suzanne. I have definitely noticed an increase in the use of emotive language which appears to purely have the goal of stirring up as much emotion as possible. Apparently it’s even better if there are two opposing sets of viewpoints as this keeps things going longer and makes the whole topic even more controversial. Yes, we are all part of the supply and demand chain and we do all have the responsibility to consider more closely how we might be feeding into such a system.
It seems easy to place the blame upon journalists that sell out to sensationalism and bosses that require such horror-full reporting. But what this article exposes is what lies behind the reality we now have. Such an expose can not be dismissed lightly for it brings each of us to a stop. A much needed stop, if we want to see the rules of engagement change in relation to reporting on our world today.
I very much like the level of responsibility that is asked for in this article. For if we blame and castigate, there can not be personal responsibility, which ultimately is where change will come from.
As well as not physically reading or engaging in the media what about those “I read somewhere” Comments or conversations? With so much bias on everything what are we sharing when “I read somewhere that…” Are we sharing what we read and feel is the underlying intention of the presentation or take what’s given for truth?
What is the difference between drama on TV and our news on TV and press when it is used to evoke our emotions and incite reactions in people?
That’s a great question Jennym. At least our TV drama does not pretend to be news.
Imagine a newspaper that published the truth of life and where we are at in this world – would you buy it? Or skip to the TV guide? We all like to talk about great teachers and wise words, but what will we actually do when it comes down to it? It seems to me that the truth is a lot harder to face than we like admit, but face it we must for the health of our race. Thank you Suzanne.
Perhaps the most devastating thing about the utter lies, manipulative and sensational so called news that we see these days is that we are responsible for it and consider it normal, acceptable even entertaining.
I have often noticed what feels like glee in the voice of journalists when telling a particularly atrocious story which fits exactly with your observation that: “The more terrorising, horror-full, exposing, painful, weird, attention seeking, alarming or impactful the reporters/journalists can make a story, the better.”
In order to change the supply we need to change the demand and before we can do this, we first have to want to change exactly what it is we are demanding. Otherwise we are just shuffling the same old pieces around the same old weathered board in the game we as spirits call ‘life’.
I agree Liane. We have to become aware of the irresponsibility indulging in what the media creates, the impact it has not only on ourselves but on society and the willingness to heal the emptiness within, the latter the root cause for stories and sensationalism to enter our lives.
True, if we didn’t actively want it – it wouldn’t be there, it’s an interesting reflection of how people choose to run their lives and what people truly want.
A great blog Suzanne bringing to our attention how irresponsible we can be and therefore contribute to the trash that is out there in all its forms.
This is a brilliant call to responsibility, both for us as media consumers and the media itself. Your point about every person who has had the finer details about them and their lives changed has been abused by the press really made me sit up – because as far as I can see this is common in almost every article – so we are not just consuming news but advocating constant abuse.
Yes, silence is very vocal. All we need to do is consider our not too distant history and the silence of nations that saw Hitler arise to power. Remaining quiet when the truth needs to be called out, is no different to promulgating the lie itself.
You brilliantly expose the media industry for the competitive machine that it is, which has no regard for people and the development of their awareness. Media today is another word for coercion. Coercion via the internet, the paper, the tweet. As you say at the end – do not engage with the coercion, and eventually it will stop. It is there because we feed it – and in fact, want it.
I remember learning about writing articles for newspapers at school. Initially we were taught to make it factual and not opinionated and then we progressed to learn about editorial columns and writing to engage the reader. All the while the theme of what does the reader want to hear most ran through the education as we were taught this dictated what can be said and where. Nowhere was it mentioned to me that the truth ought to be placed first.
It was the sensationalised coverage of the banking crisis that made me wake up to the lies, drama and untruths of the media, it made me feel physically unwell turning on the television or radio and listening to the reporting. At the time I found the world service the least dramatic and continued to listen to that for a while until eventually I decided it was no longer something for me to engage in. Almost overnight I stopped watching television, buying newspapers or news magazines and I haven’t looked back.
Thank you, Suzanne, for this exposé on supply and demand, asking us to review our choices and whether we want truth in our lives or ‘convenient truths’ created by our collective lack of responsibility.
Great blog Suzanne, I feel the common theme here is competition and in the last few days I have just seen how rife this is within the work place and between services that are providing similar services. It feels really horrible and, like you are sharing, instead of coming together and providing something for all it becomes a battle of who is doing it the best or most. Also the fact that we have the phrase ‘fake news’ now says it all as well as this (“don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story,” they say) … so what we are getting is a fake story that makes someone look ‘good’ for publishing it that is driven by competition and recognition. What we need is the truth which is present by all to the all and is transparent, non biased and equal, outlaying the facts for people to see. So are we as humanity going to start to change what we are demanding and demand the true truth instead of the lies, fakes news and stories? The bigger question to ask is why would we want this in the first place, what are we getting from it – to stay in our comfort with our heads in the sand and not take true responsibility for our life and how we are living? Maybe.
The news has become a commodity to be sold and bought and subject to manipulation. Inventing news is not new and has been hitting the headlines of late, along with over exaggeration of the facts and overdoing the coverage. The juicier the story the more money is made, and other world events do not get a mention. I suppose it’s the supply and demand story – if the demand weren’t there we wouldn’t be in this mess now. So, maybe it’s time to look a little closer to home.
I love the simple way in which you explain the ‘supply and demand’ principle and our own role in it.
If we would not give fodder any attention, because we all want truth and nothing else the world would change very quickly.
You are so right once again it is a supply and demand thing, if everyone demanded the absolute truth and only bought papers, watched or listened to news that was then there would be no others. It is us that buy the tabloids which not only publish complete rubbish but also have a political agenda driving them as well. It is all about ratings and money and truth does get in the way, if given a chance, of these media barons getting more and more power .
Suzanne, great article, it’s very interesting to reflect on how news used to be presented some 70 years ago and how it was very factual and not emotive and sensationalist like it is today, as readers we have the power to demand the truth and facts again – so that we know what is really going on in the world.
I have noticed that this pressure to stir emotions and reactions is also prevalent in the weather forecast where the possibility of inclement weather conditions, in the middle of winter, is presented as something threatening and alarming. Fine, sunny weather, in the UK, is presented as a gift from the weather forecaster.
Great observation, thank you Mary
This is interesting and to me highlights our need for some kind of fulfilment that we seek outside of ourselves, be it drama or a gift.
Love it Suzanne, when you shared about the way reporting was done in 1947 I could really feel how much of the news stories now have emotion in it. It is like when you read it you straight away feel loaded with not the extremity of what happened but the extremity of the emotional loading that comes with the article. It would be way more healthy for us all to have more of the old day reporting, just the facts with great detail, without space for suspicion and inflaming reactions. As emotions are not healthy for the body.
If we need sensational reporting to make us feel alive then that is exactly what we will get. The problem is we will not be getting the truth, the simple facts of what happened reported without bias. Unfortunately though, in most cases we will get a glorified report that has only one aim, and that is to make more money for the media giants. But as long as we keep asking for this sort of reporting it will continue to grow as will the profit of many of these companies.
A simple and inspiring change-making call to action, Suzanne, thank you. We feed the cycle of ever more sensationalist and de-sensitising news by accessing, reading, buying and reacting to it. Let’s de-tox ourselves from this and call for the truth, unbiasedly and responsibly shared.
As just about everything else, the media is about demand and supply and consumers are as culpable as are media barons and journalists when it comes to keeping it all going – everybody who partakes gets a feed of some kind or other.
This is a great call to action (or in the case of not supporting sensationalistic media, inaction) Suzanne and I totally agree that by merely sitting on the sidelines and not saying or doing anything about it makes us all complicit- “What we are silent about is what we accept.”- These are truly words of wisdom. The manipulation of truth and misrepresentation of the facts by the media in all its forms is at the foundation of massive corruption and harm on a global scale. Journalism has lost its soul in this and has sold out to the ideal of making money via advertising over what should be the basis of their work- that is reporting on the truth of any situation, relationship, or event in an objective way. Even websites like the Weather Channel have all kinds of radically dramatic, grotesque, overly sexualised and violent/bizarre videos to engage people in an emotionally reactive way. What about just reporting on the weather and forecasts? It’s gotten really ridiculous, indeed.
Yes and the levels of anxiety and post traumatic stress are a clear indication of our innate sensitivity and how this dramatisation doesn’t serve us well. My sense is our bodies can cope with facts, they may make us sad, upset, even confused at how humans can behave that way towards each other, but there is somehow a deeper understanding of how to process it. When we go for emotion and manipulation there is a targeted reaction which complicates the response in our bodies.
In a world where taking responsibility for our actions was paramount, would we have news at all? What news brings is an account of something that has happened, so in actual fact it is not news but old information as it has already occurred. However, if we live with the ability to respond to what is coming towards us (which we all can as it is innate) then all reports of ‘news’ would be of appreciation and confirmation of who we all are equally so and the simplicity of living with truth and love and a celebration of that.