This article by Courtney E. Martin on The American Prospect’s website resonated with me quite a bit. I have always been a news junkie and an information junkie in general (shut up), but the fatigue that sets in from trying to stay abreast of the latest cycle of bad news-partisan spin-outraged response-lather-rinse-repeat takes its toll. I agree with Martin’s assertion that there is an element of obligation, of bearing witness to these events. We live in an uncertain time, and those who come after us may not truly understand this period of history if not for our ability to layer the context of our contemporary view in with their detached perspective.
In the second half of the piece, she looks around for some way to help ease the psychic weight of that burden. She wants that way to be more than just the escapism of ignorance (and I would add also the escapism of “faith”, religious or otherwise), and wonders if citizen journalism is a possible vector for positive activism. Certainly, the empowering technology of the web makes it more possible than ever, though the futility of “fighting City Hall” throughout history doesn’t bode well for this latest incarnation. One of the commenters at the end of the article rehashes a bunch of similar platitudes like “think globally, act locally” and “be the change you want to see in the world”, which are not really wrong-headed on their own but to me feel as though they are aimed at a different issue than the relationship we are compelled to have with news media. Do-gooderism tends to be very superficial, and not all of us can be the Mahatma.
I won’t pretend that I have an answer either. I think it’s imperative that everyone, and not just the bare third of the populace that the Pew Research Center study she quotes who share this sense of obligation, seek out MORE information not less, and thus turn to sources outside of journalism as a way to add balance and perspective.
