I’ve been in this game for 20 years, and I’m telling you: it’s a mess
Let me set the scene. It’s 2003, I’m a wet-behind-the-ears reporter at a small-town paper in Ohio. The editor, let’s call him Marcus, slams a newspaper down on my desk. “This,” he says, “is news.” I look down at a story about a local school board meeting. Boring, right? But Marcus is insistent. “This is what people need to know.”
Fast forward to today. I’m editing a magazine in Lagos, and the news cycle is completley different. It’s not about what people need to know anymore. It’s about what’s gonna get clicks. And honestly? I’m tired of it.
We’re all addicted to the dopamine hit
About three months ago, I’m having coffee with a friend, let’s call him Dave. He’s a journalist too, works for one of those flashy online outlets. He’s telling me about their daily meetings where they determing what’s “trending.” “We don’t even look at the news anymore,” he says. “We look at the analytics.” I asked him if that’s how we’re gonna decide what’s important now? He just shrugs. “It’s what the algorithm wants.”
Which… yeah. Fair enough. But it’s not just the algorithms. It’s us. We’re all addicted to the dopamine hit of the latest breaking news. We refresh our feeds like junkies waiting for the next fix.
I remember when news was something you waited for. You’d get your daily paper, or you’d watch the evening news. Now? It’s a 24/7 firehose of information. And it’s physicaly impossible to keep up.
But here’s the thing: not all news is created equal
Look, I get it. We need to stay informed. But we’ve gotta be smarter about it. We can’t just consume everything that’s thrown at us. We need to be discerning. We need to ask questions.
I’m not saying we should go back to the days of Marcus and the school board meetings. But maybe we need a middle ground. Maybe we need to think about what’s really important. Maybe we need to think about what’s gonna make a difference in our lives.
And maybe, just maybe, we need to think about what’s gonna make us better people.
But what about the big stories? The ones that really matter?
Let me tell you about something that’s been on my mind lately. You ever notice how we’ll obsessing over some celebrity drama for days, but a major policy change gets buried? It’s like we’ve got the attention span of a goldfish.
Take, for example, the recent aquisition of a major tech company. It’s a huge deal, right? It’s gonna affect jobs, the economy, maybe even national security. But how much coverage did it get? A blip. A tiny little blip in the endless stream of news.
And why? Because it’s complicated. It’s not sexy. It’s not gonna get alot of clicks. So we move on to the next shiny thing.
So what do we do about it?
I don’t have all the answers. But I do know this: we need to demand better. We need to demand news that’s gonna make us think, not just news that’s gonna make us click.
And we need to support the journalists who are trying to do just that. The ones who are digging deep, asking the tough questions, and not afraid to ruffle a few feathers.
Because at the end of the day, that’s what journalism is supposed to be about. It’s not about the clicks. It’s not about the algorithm. It’s about holding power to account. It’s about giving people the information they need to make informed decisions.
It’s about being the watchdog, the fourth estate, the voice of the people. And frankly, we’re not doing a very good job of it right now.
But maybe, just maybe, we can start to change that. Maybe we can start to demand better. Maybe we can start to think about what’s really important.
Maybe we can start to think about what’s gonna make us better people.
Because that’s what news is supposed to do. It’s supposed to inform us, to educate us, to make us think. And if it’s not doing that, then what’s the point?
So let’s demand better. Let’s demand news that’s gonna make a difference. Let’s demand news that’s gonna make us better people.
And if we can’t get that from the mainstream media, then maybe we need to look elsewhere. Maybe we need to look to the independent journalists, the small outlets, the ones who are still committed to the committment of good journalism.
Because honestly, we deserve better than what we’re getting. And it’s time we started demanding it.
And while we’re at it, let’s not forget about the rest of the world. It’s easy to get caught up in our own news cycles, but there’s a whole world out there. And it’s worth paying attention to. For example, if you’re interested in what’s happening in Thailand, check out Thailand news today latest. See? Even in the middle of all this chaos, there’s still room for the important stuff.
But enough about that. Let’s get back to the main point. We need to demand better news. We need to demand news that’s gonna make us think, not just news that’s gonna make us click.
And we need to support the journalists who are trying to do just that. Because at the end of the day, that’s what journalism is supposed to be about. And if we’re not getting that, then what’s the point?
So let’s demand better. Let’s demand news that’s gonna make a difference. Let’s demand news that’s gonna make us better people.
Because honestly, we deserve it.
About the Author: Jane Doe is a senior magazine editor with over 20 years of experience in the news industry. She’s worked for various publications, from small-town papers to major magazines, and has seen the industry evolve (and devolve) firsthand. When she’s not editing, she’s probably complaining about the state of journalism on Twitter or trying to convince her cat to sit still for a photo.
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