Issue 3: Navigating the News

In 2017, after the combination of Trump’s election and the Brexit referendum, I significantly reduced my consumption of news media.  I was uncomfortable with retreating from what I had always regarded as a civic duty to remain sufficiently informed about what was going on in the world.  However, like many others, I came to the conclusion that consuming what had become increasingly toxic rather than informative merely depressed me without any benefit.  So I vowed to rely on BBC4’s ‘The World Tonight’ to keep me minimally informed and focus the rest of my energies on any small actions I could take to contribute to an increasingly troubled world.

When the coronavirus started to become a serious threat, I decided the time had come to re-engage with the news in order to inform myself of critical information about the progression of the pandemic.  Almost instantaneously, I found myself dragged into a slightly addictive state of ‘perverse entertainment’.  I’m ashamed to admit that it added a certain frisson to my evenings to watch the drama unfolding.  However, it wasn’t long before the images of terminally ill patients on ventilators in Italy, interviews with terrified NHS health workers and Indians stampeding on to trains to return to their villages became too much for me to bear.  I had to again make the difficult decision about what to ‘consume consciously’, attempting to avoid denial whilst protecting myself from futile distress.
 
After a lot of experimentation, where I have got to now is a weekly mix of the following:
 

 
I’m not presenting this as the right ‘formula’ for navigating the news in such turbulent times, and I continue to review the mix for myself.  There has never been more information available and yet it has never been more challenging to discern what is factual and useful.  My hope is that this experience will make us all more intelligent and discerning consumers of media, which we will increasingly need to be to navigate the challenging times ahead.