Wednesday, July 27, 2005
The Human Cost of 24-Hour News
Source: Newhouse News Service Bruce Taylor Seeman writes: "It's opinion. It's conjecture. It's a tidbit from the newest poll or another alarming image -- delivered with rising drumbeats -- from the day's top story. It's today's 24-hour news.
But as Americans bathe in constant reports from CNN or Fox, the Internet, satellite radio, newspapers and magazines, is there a price to pay for living in a world where the news never stops?
Increasingly, analysts say, we are compelled not so much by legitimate thirst for information as by an addiction to technology and impulses that turn human attention to fear, sex and conflict.
The result: Our minds get filled with static, distortion and exaggerated anxiety.
After a disaster, "television news shows the same images repeatedly -- with virtually no additional information each time," said Frank Vespe, executive director of the TV-Turnoff Network, a group that calls for less TV watching. "The horror is beaten into you with no corresponding increase in knowledge. The message you receive is that the world is big, dangerous, scary and completely out of control -- a message that is profoundly disturbing.""
Read the complete article HERE.
# posted by ATN @ 12:50 PM 
