Definition of news: newly received or noteworthy information, especially about recent events (Oxford Dictionary) or: News is information about a recently changed situation or a recent event (Webster Collins)
During the 2016 US election many paragons of fact-based journalism in the US were alarmed by the rise in the Trump campaign of so-called ‘post-truth’. In 2018, it is clear looking at how news media has become obsessed by a few stories regardless of their daily newsworthiness. You could call this post-news.
My own definition of news is when something happens that is of interest to the public. Nowadays, especially since Brexit and the election of Trump, a lot of what passes for news does not pass the definition test. What we get, especially in the UK and US, is somebody saying something that is not new, since nothing has really happened — but that fits a pre-existing news agenda. Brexit bad/good. Trump bad/good. For example, the BBC’s top story of the day:
Leaked government Brexit paper suggests UK economic hit Any Brexit deal 'will hit UK economy'
The UK economy will grow more slowly outside the European Union, no matter what deal is struck with Brussels, a leaked… www.bbc.co.uk
Now, that is what I call noise. It’s a paper, it says there might be an economic impact from Brexit. Or maybe, there won’t be. Is this the first such report — thousands of previous such reports suggest not. How, then, is this news? NOTHING HAS HAPPENED.
Brexit has turned the news in the UK into an interminable, tedious wall of mirrors based on comments, rumours, reports and reactions to the absence of an actual event. Brexit is a kind of pseudo event — a phantasm, created by the political class, fed by the media class. Yes, there was a referendum (18 months ago). Yes, we may be leaving the EU — in 18 months. But Brexit is THE NEWS every single day, and has been since the referendum was announced about a million years ago, sorry that’s two years ago. I’ve stopped counting.
Donald Trump, since he launched his election campaign more than two years ago, in that bygone age of normalcy, is the other ‘noise’ meme that keeps on giving. Each day the media has one task: how to show how good/bad Trump is. Conveniently, today’s New York Times headline is possibly the most anodyne and ridiculous ‘noise’ Trump non-story I’ve seen, well, since the last time I bothered to look:
Some Supporters Fear Trump Will Lose Hard Edge in State of Union Speech
Honestly, that isn’t an Onion headline, its real. The main article for the liberal paper of record in the United States has a story about what some people think might be in Trump’s speech to the nation, which hasn’t happened yet. This is a classic example of noise, or in this case, more like the sound of a balloon floating down the stairs.
Clearly, this is not happening because there is less news in the world than there was before 2016. No, somewhere down the line news organisations worked out it was easier to mine the rich seam of Brexit-Trump noise than to report real events — something happened, something changed.
I am lucky to work in a news region where everyday something real happens to report on. The noise factor is limited in the Middle East: we’ve got wars, dictatorships, struggles for justice and freedom, you name it.
Some of this can be explained by cuts to foreign reporting staffs on major papers, some on social media driven news values, and some, because maybe it’s easier to write these kind of stories, and requires less time and investment, than real ones.
Better head over to The Sun, or the Telegraph, for some real news: Brendan Cole axed from Strictly Come Dancing by BBC after arguments with judges Maybe this is what people really want. Maybe not. Move over post-truth, welcome to post-news.
During the 2016 US election many paragons of fact-based journalism in the US were alarmed by the rise in the Trump campaign of so-called ‘post-truth’. In 2018, it is clear looking at how news media has become obsessed by a few stories regardless of their daily newsworthiness. You could call this post-news.
My own definition of news is when something happens that is of interest to the public. Nowadays, especially since Brexit and the election of Trump, a lot of what passes for news does not pass the definition test. What we get, especially in the UK and US, is somebody saying something that is not new, since nothing has really happened — but that fits a pre-existing news agenda. Brexit bad/good. Trump bad/good. For example, the BBC’s top story of the day:
Leaked government Brexit paper suggests UK economic hit Any Brexit deal 'will hit UK economy'
The UK economy will grow more slowly outside the European Union, no matter what deal is struck with Brussels, a leaked… www.bbc.co.uk
Now, that is what I call noise. It’s a paper, it says there might be an economic impact from Brexit. Or maybe, there won’t be. Is this the first such report — thousands of previous such reports suggest not. How, then, is this news? NOTHING HAS HAPPENED.
Brexit has turned the news in the UK into an interminable, tedious wall of mirrors based on comments, rumours, reports and reactions to the absence of an actual event. Brexit is a kind of pseudo event — a phantasm, created by the political class, fed by the media class. Yes, there was a referendum (18 months ago). Yes, we may be leaving the EU — in 18 months. But Brexit is THE NEWS every single day, and has been since the referendum was announced about a million years ago, sorry that’s two years ago. I’ve stopped counting.
Donald Trump, since he launched his election campaign more than two years ago, in that bygone age of normalcy, is the other ‘noise’ meme that keeps on giving. Each day the media has one task: how to show how good/bad Trump is. Conveniently, today’s New York Times headline is possibly the most anodyne and ridiculous ‘noise’ Trump non-story I’ve seen, well, since the last time I bothered to look:
Some Supporters Fear Trump Will Lose Hard Edge in State of Union Speech
Honestly, that isn’t an Onion headline, its real. The main article for the liberal paper of record in the United States has a story about what some people think might be in Trump’s speech to the nation, which hasn’t happened yet. This is a classic example of noise, or in this case, more like the sound of a balloon floating down the stairs.
Clearly, this is not happening because there is less news in the world than there was before 2016. No, somewhere down the line news organisations worked out it was easier to mine the rich seam of Brexit-Trump noise than to report real events — something happened, something changed.
I am lucky to work in a news region where everyday something real happens to report on. The noise factor is limited in the Middle East: we’ve got wars, dictatorships, struggles for justice and freedom, you name it.
Some of this can be explained by cuts to foreign reporting staffs on major papers, some on social media driven news values, and some, because maybe it’s easier to write these kind of stories, and requires less time and investment, than real ones.
Better head over to The Sun, or the Telegraph, for some real news: Brendan Cole axed from Strictly Come Dancing by BBC after arguments with judges Maybe this is what people really want. Maybe not. Move over post-truth, welcome to post-news.
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