Red Dusk
Oh, hey, Patrick Swayze died. I just saw it on a magazine rack at the grocery store. The cashier said he died “like two days ago”, but oh boy is it clear that there was a full glitzy feature ready to run in People at the press of a button.
So, “like two days ago”. And I find out from a magazine rack. I think this suggests that the news I consume may be wide, but is not exhaustive. Granted, the headline of my news article (if I had a blog, say) would be something like “Rich white guy who used to be in movies dies of natural causes after receiving ‘best medical care in world’”. And I’d have to weigh that against any possible dog trials coverage, to see if it even gets a last-page mention.
But, OK, kind of scary again: another cultural bit I missed. I have — snobbish? elitist? pass-the-espresso-with-lemon-twist? — news sources. Does that make me superior to a Fox-News-And-Only-Fox-News consumer? My intuition is “yes”, but the proof is eluding me at this moment.
(Mandatory) exercise for the reader:
- Daily news sources
- Multiple-times-per-week news sources
- Once-in-a-while news sources
- Oops-I-forgot-I-was-supposed-to-be-following-that news sources
- I-don’t-consume-but-say-I-do news sources
- Never-on-principle news sources
I have my list, but, if you cooperate (“coöperate” is so much prettier!), my list will be different at the end of this exercise.
Subscribe by email
September 18th, 2009 at 15h55
I get almost all of my news from MetaFilter (which, it should be noted, did cover Swayze’s death). I’m not proud of this, but I figure that if anything really important is happening in the world, it’ll show up in the Facebook feed of one of my more news-minded friends.
Mostly, I’m just here to post a picture of the greatest tattoo of all time.
September 18th, 2009 at 16h00
Mostly, I’m just here to post a picture of the greatest tattoo of all time.
I actually have a transcript of that transaction right here:
news from MetaFilter
Newsfilter! NEWWWWWWSSSSSSFILTER! mathowie, WTF? Where’s the banhammer?
September 18th, 2009 at 16h02
the Facebook feed of one of my more news-minded friends
It should be noted, to be rigorous, that this is predicated on both “uses Facebook” and “has friends”, and therefore may not be applicable in my case.
September 18th, 2009 at 17h32
You also don’t work in an office, which is the other source of news for me. Which is to say, I learned that Michael Jackson died when one of my co-workers stood up and shouted “OH MAH GAWD! MICHAEL JACKSON DEAD!” Anything terribly important in the world, I can count on a co-worker shouting at the top of her lungs.
September 18th, 2009 at 17h47
Anything terribly important in the world
That was an example of the “irony” that Americans are supposedly incapable of grokking, right?
September 18th, 2009 at 17h52
also don’t work in an office
Yeah, but I did for a decade. I think, more to the point, I didn’t work in your office. The arrival of Sneakernet news was presaged by the sound of heels clopping down the corridor and the smell of cheap coffee wafting from seminar-gift mugs, and would usually begin with a wry “Have you seen the Dow?” or “Did you hear that Singapore Air just bought twenty Airbuses?!“
September 19th, 2009 at 14h16
Also, this is pretty funny. I’d say it’s in bad taste, but fifteen years is a long ass time to be saying “too soon”.
September 20th, 2009 at 21h59
[...] my I-wish-it-wouldn’t-be-continuing series of “learning shit from the covers of magazines at the supermarket”, I was introduced to [...]
September 21st, 2009 at 05h09
I went through a period of about a year in high school where all I would watch was CNN. It was obsessive, actually. And sadly, this was around the time of the September 11 attacks, so I think I got more than I bargained for…Now, I stay away from any “real” news, and have become quite the shallow/desensitized/careless person, I don’t know which term applies better.
Every once in a while, my co-workers will talk about something that happened locally, or sometimes even on a national scale, and my response is always the same, “oh really? I didn’t know..” but I never ask about it.
September 30th, 2009 at 09h31
1. NYT; Glenn Greenwald
1.5. Salon and Slate
2. Guardian; Rachel Maddow
3. BBC News; NPR
4-5: Nothin’.
6. CNN; Fox News
October 1st, 2009 at 17h00
Item 1: I also learned about Michael Jackson dying when someone in my office yelled it out. Only the office was in Malawi.
Item 2: I get my news from http://www.bbc.co.uk…I remembered why when I went to a meeting in another NGO’s office and they had a tv in their lobby. It was tuned to a news show, and against my will I learned that the most important news of the day was apparently that Kanye West dissed Taylor Swift during some music awards show. Uh, what?
October 1st, 2009 at 17h52
I don’t like being proud of my ignorance, but:
(Actually, I might very well be proud of my ignorance, but:)
Actual Conversation With My Mother
Joshua: [describes magazine cover at supermarket with a headline something like "Tearful Kanye apologizes to Taylor":] This is a magazine’s top story?
Mother: I guess so.
Joshua: Kanye — that’s Kanye … West, right?
Mother: Yes, I believe so.
Joshua: He’s a musician, right?
Mother: Yes.
Joshua: And Taylor…?
Mother: Taylor Swift.
Joshua: I assume she’s also a musician?
Mother: Yes.
Joshua: What happened?
Mother: [relates story, including part about Beyoncé (I know who she is!) inviting her onstage]
Joshua: Oh. Cool.