Comments on: The news (re)cycle

By: McGehee

McGehee — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 14:57:05 +0000

A rest between news cycles gave people time to cool down and reflect without the instant angry reactions that fill the net within minutes of anything remotely “important.”

And it allowed people to remember that, instantaneous communications notwithstanding, it’s still a big country on an even bigger world, and most of the stuff they hear about happening in the world is far, far away.

People these days waste their concern for others on people half the world away (who are, after all, just moving shadows in the magic lantern), and thus have nothing left to give right in their own hometowns to people who actually breathe the same air.

By: MikeSwi...

MikeSwi... — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 03:42:20 +0000

How could I forget the Times? I was a weird kid, a news junkie at a young age and I remember loving it when the afternoon paper hit the door. I would always finish it off by checking out the evening prime time schedule when the local stations each bought a little block of space for that evening’s network shows. To this day when I hear the Gunsmoke theme, I am transported back to 1967 or so. Weird. Thanks for reminding me about the Times.

I’m not so sure this 24-hour instant news is such a good thing either. With a shooting in Atlanta, we know about within 15 minutes when the alarmist looking graphics hit the screen: “Breaking News!” It has made it seem, whether true or not, that things are more out-of-control than they used to be. A rest between news cycles gave people time to cool down and reflect without the instant angry reactions that fill the net within minutes of anything remotely “important.” I love the access to news and information in near real-time, but I am conflicted. The days of tuning in the radio news-on-the-hour, the afternoon paper and three choices at 5:30 was in some strange way comforting, at least in retrospect.

By: CGHill

CGHill — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 22:52:44 +0000

Unless it was Sunday, though, you could hang on for a few minutes until the kid came by with the Oklahoma City Times, which usually hit the streets before four.

By: MikeSwi...

MikeSwi... — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 21:39:10 +0000

Chaz, About the 24-hour news thing: Remember the days when if it was ten after three in the afternoon and you wanted to know what was going on in the world, you had to wait until the top-of-the-hour news on AM radio? There were all of 4 VHF TV stations, none with news until 5:30 (network) 6:00 (local). No all-news radio (except for a year or so when that little station in Midwest City tried it with UPI news and rip ‘n’ read stuff). Obviously no Internet. At 3:10pm and news hungry, you had to wait FIFTY MINUTES to hear the 5-minute wrap-up at 4:00 on KTOK or KOCY. WKY had top-of-the-hour local news for 2 or 3 minutes. A far cry from the current saturation of doom and gloom.

By: Dan B

Dan B — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 20:10:10 +0000

The final nail in the coffin for newsprint will be the day when you can take the computer screen to the toilet or on a plane as easily as a newspaper or magazine.