The Rise of Oh Dear-ism in Television News
Adam Curtis is one of my favorite contemporary thinkers. The conclusion he has drawn in this documentary seems to be that telling the news with complex details is essential if an intelligent and truthful picture of the situation is to be known.
This means people need to be able to shift their emotional satisfaction preferences, as far as news is concerned, away from the polarity of black and white thinking or the victim-abuser mindset. It means being able to sustain interest in comprehending complexity, not just a simple cartoon-version of real life. It means not having only sound bites but becoming familiar with a many-faceted narrative.
On TV these days there's mostly one kind of news, cheap infotainment
For actual news, told with contemplative complexity, one needs, in my experience, to come to the web and put the pieces together oneself.
And audiences need to adjust to learning about the world in greater depth.
clipped from: www.disclose.tv