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Saturday 16 September 2017

Headlines

Not so long ago we found ourselves on holiday with poor WiFi. Good enough to use the iPad for scanning headlines but not worth firing up the laptop. No matter. Headlines are familiar enough anyway - barely worth scanning apart from a residual interest in major stories and a fading desire to keep tabs on the memes of the day.

Scanning the headlines is rather like shopping in a supermarket. Ignoring isles of salty snacks, sugary drinks, confectionery and prepared food becomes a habit. So much so that one doesn’t notice just how much junk there is in the average supermarket - 

- average? 

No not average - they are all like that. Selling the average is what supermarkets do. So it is with media headlines – barely worth a second glance and this is what struck me as I browsed the headlines on the iPad. 

The world is a wonderful place. There is an infinite variety of fascination out there, so much so that ten lifetimes would not be enough to do it justice. That’s not what we see in the headlines. We see the equivalent of supermarket isles full of salty snacks, sugary drinks, confectionery and prepared food. We see the junk which sells but doesn’t inform. We see the junk which isn’t even good for us, the garbage we might shun if it were not for our ingrained laziness, our perennial habit of taking what is offered rather than seeking out the best that is available - 

- no that’s not it – not quite. 

Media headlines have begun to seem infantile. They were always strident, over-dramatic, misleading and simplistic, but the desperate hunt for clicks has reached another level as they say. Infantile feels new to me and it feels like a trend. Not particularly new because we have seen this level of reporting for quite some time. It’s back to the supermarket isles, back to the infantile consumption, back to the isles of confectionery.

10 comments:

Scrobs. said...

The older I get, the less interested I am in 'main' headlines which say the same thing over and over again.

We don't listen to the BBC any more because of its dreadful left-wing bias, and the reporting isn't very good anyway.

So it's local friends, close family, my village, and trebles all round...

Sackerson said...

Currently reading this "novel" about Fleet Street in 1960, well worth it:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crooked-Sixpence-Murray-Sayle/dp/0955823846

wiggiatlarge said...

As I worked in Fleet Street in the early sixties I will have to read that, despite all the union problems it was a fascinating place.

The Jannie said...

Headlines? All I get are 4king football and slebs 4king . . .

Demetrius said...

I subscribe to a web site that gives me access to a great many archived newspapers and journals. The result that I am living in a past world most of the time. Also, I think their ideas and products dealing with lumbago are superior.

Sackerson said...

@Wiggia: I should like to hear about that.

A K Haart said...

Scrobs - we are much the same, we don't watch or listen to the BBC either. Too politically correct.

Sackers - sounds interesting but no Kindle version as far as I can see. So much to read and so little time.

Wiggia - why not tell us about it?

DCB - slebs are the pits. Without them I'm sure the world would be a finer place.

Demetrius - that's a good idea, it's where I'm going.

Scrobs. said...

Just bought a copy from Amazon, Sackers!

Four and a half folding pictures of The Duke of Wellington, on the nose...

Thanks for the tip. When Reuters burnt down in the late sixties, perhaps 1970, we had the job of measuring the whole building for fire damage.

That was about the time I wished I'd become a journalist...

Could have become famous...

Sackerson said...

@ Michael - enjoy! When you've read it you'll want to burn down the other Press HQs.

Sackerson said...

P.S. Seems there was a forerunner - "The Street of Disillusion" by Harry Procter, first published 1958 (i.e. 3 years before Sayle's book came out). Republished 2010, currently available for under £8 inc p+p:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/0956368670/ref=tmm_pap_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=used&qid=&sr=

Unlike Sayle, Procter actually quit journalism in disgust:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2010/jul/23/newspapers-daily-mirror