Do you avoid the news

philstar

There's so much misery in the news these days it really affects my mood

So lately when i'm in my car and the news comes on the radio i change over to CD instantly and at home i purposely avoid watching the news on TV and i've deleted all the news channels from my satellite decoder.

I just don't wanna know ignorance is bliss

I watch and read the news as soon as I wake up, and keep up during the day.

Sometimes I'll avoid specific news stories for various reasons, but I can't imagine being clueless about what's happening in the world.

NachoBusiness

Don't you think this thread is seriously bad taste OP considering we just lost half the population?

Cee-Jay-Cee

I tend to avoid the news too, especially irish news where it has been nothing but stories about how screwed we were, how the government were going to
Screw us even more and how much of an utterly miserable and depressing ****hole this country is.

The good news stories on the irish news are generally left to the dying minutes where most people have either fallen asleep, got bored and switched off or are doing something else and not listening anyway.

One eyed Jack

I like to keep up with current affairs and so on, but my god these days there's an awful amount of nonsense masquerading as 'news', so I try to be more selective in my news sources. Unfortunately that's becoming an all too short list as I try to avoid celebrity culture, clickbait, and human interest pieces that 'go viral' (not very interesting at all really).

I've actually begun to read more history than current affairs, because at least the history books still maintain some sense of perspective.

Del2005

NachoBusiness wrote: »

Don't you think this thread is seriously bad taste OP considering we just lost half the population?

That's the half that watches the news so no one will know..

BoJack Horseman

Much 'news output' is reading twitter.

When the media "invite comment" I check out, its just cheap filler in lieu of real content.

I avoid animal cruelty stories when I can, cos I'm a giant pussy.

GotTheTshirt

I've gone into lockdown the last couple of days. I know I should care and it's probably important but one more word about fupping Greece....

fryup

in this modern age its next to impossible to avoid the news

Son Of A Vidic

philstar wrote: »

Do you avoid the news

Well I do tend to avoid Sky News and any of the propaganda spewed out by the Murdoch media. There's only so much fear, hype and terra one can take.

Boring username

I do find myself reading less articles, not because of the content, but because 90% of the material is now clickbait shiteology.You might as well forget about the journal, broadsheet.ie, breakingnews.ie, and most of the womens/celebrity section of the Independent website.
Even the BBC has started to drop in a quite a lot of shit stirring SJW and race baiting articles, and are very noticeably omitting stories that don't suit their agenda.

catallus

Russia Today and France 24 provide a good balance of what's what.

I feel like puking when I see anglophone news-providers regurgitate the lies of US/K/N, not to mention the sycophantic overkill on internal US affairs such as the "upcoming" presidential election; it's over a bloody year away!

Harry Palmr

I have the current affairs programmes on radio in the morning, but hardly bother with TV news in the early evening unless something happens to catch the eye while scrolling channels. I have not watched a full mid-late news in years by then its all re-hashed and dull

catallus

Russia Today and France 24 provide a good balance of what's what.

knew a news hipster would be along before long!

Boring username

catallus wrote: »

Russia Today and France 24 provide a good balance of what's what.

I feel like puking when I see anglophone news-providers regurgitate the lies of US/K/N, not to mention the sycophantic overkill on internal US affairs such as the "upcoming" presidential election; it's over a bloody year away!

Russia Today is to left wing media what Fox News is to right wing media-complete and utter rubbish. I'm astonished at the amount of people who have trouble grasping this.

catallus

Fox is pretty good, I think.

Just because people don't want to hear the truth shouldn't deter investigative journalism!

mariaalice

I have a quick listen at the headlines and if I don't like the News or if I know its going to be upsetting I turn It off, I also don't listen to any news stories of a social science theme, .... a report has found lower literacy levels in such and such a group or a report has found that alcohol is a factor in domestic violence that sort of thing anything that starts with a report has found.

I have taken to listening to news talk and they don't do that sort of news reporting half as much.

ScumLord

I don't read papers or watch the news on TV. I think for the most part that type of news is sensationalised to the point it might as well be lying. I don't go in for the celebrity worship that's almost completely taken over newspapers. I think they hunt down tragedy to take advantage of people's empathy, there's no need for me to know that something horrible happened on the other side of the world, there's zero I can do about it. They all present a completely unbalanced view of the world and I think most people would find themselves much happier people if they cut out the majority of their news consumption.

I read science magazines and like to keep up on technology, I listen to talk radio where you get a more in debt and balanced view of news stories. But I don't listen to, or watch RTE at all.

PARlance

ScumLord wrote: »

I don't read papers or watch the news on TV. I think for the most part that type of news is sensationalised to the point it might as well be lying. I don't go in for the celebrity worship that's almost completely taken over newspapers. I think they hunt down tragedy to take advantage of people's empathy, there's no need for me to know that something horrible happened on the other side of the world, there's zero I can do about it. They all present a completely unbalanced view of the world and I think most people would find themselves much happier people if they cut out the majority of their news consumption.

I read science magazines and like to keep up on technology, I listen to talk radio where you get a more in debt and balanced view of news stories. But I don't listen to, or watch RTE at all.

Same situation here and have been like that for the last 7-8 years. I'll keep up to date with current affairs and specific areas of interest.
But most of the news that my friends and family watch seem to revolve around wallowing in grief or wowing over some talent less celebrity.

ScumLord

PARlance wrote: »

Same situation here and have been like that for the last 7-8 years. I'll keep up to date with current affairs and specific areas of interest.

It's not like you'll actually miss big news, someone will tell you about it.

mud

I just have a quick look at the After Hours homepage to see what I should/could be outraged about.

failinis

The news tends to be on in the morning when eating breakfast but apart from that I will check my regional news on the BBC website and if anything major happens I would hear about then decide to read more into it.
Don't like the idea of people completely ignoring the news, its good to know what the hell is happening.

Sleepy

I used to listen to Newstalk almost religiously on my commute to work but honestly, I ended up switching to Nova. I still listen to the news but following Irish politics in depth tends to be bad for my mental health. The amount of nonsense the elected represntatives of our nation get up to in attempts to score imaginary points with the public is just tedious. At the end of the day, I want a government to run the country and an opposition to hold them to account and provide constructive suggestions / criticism. I've yet to see either of these things done well by an Irish parliament. We elect teachers, publicans, party hacks etc to do a job for which they're completely unqualified and then act surprised when they make a balls of things.

the dark phantom

Fox and Sky I stopped watching, It never feels like neutral reporting, Just an agenda and hype.

catallus

Sky is one of the most balanced news channels around!

Reoil

Personally, I find the Daily Mail factually accurate, non-sensationalist and not full of complete and utter bull****. Highly recommended.

Meathlass

I've been thinking of this recently. I'm a news junkie, I have the radio on from 6am to midnight. The only time it's off is when I'm watching tv. I have a 3 hour commute each day and always listen to news stations. I also regularly read the national newspapers.

However about a month ago a close friend died in a tragic accident. 2 weeks after his funeral the Berkeley students died and I found myself switching off some of the news stations and putting on a cd as every eulogy and tribute to them reminded me of my friend and his similar unfulfilled life as he was in his early 20s as well. I was spending my days in floods of tears.

The recent events in Tunisia is having the same effect as I know the family of one of the deceased. I'm sure this feeling will pass in time but at the moment there seems to be a never ending cascade of death and tragedy.

So while I can understand why someone would want to skip the news at times I can't imagine ignoring it completely and not keeping up to date with current affairs and politics.

ScumLord

Meathlass wrote: »

So while I can understand why someone would want to skip the news at times I can't imagine ignoring it completely and not keeping up to date with current affairs and politics.

Why, keeping up with the news has little to no benefit, it won't help you in your day or help the people involved in the story. The news becomes more and more like gossip every day.

Meathlass

ScumLord wrote: »

Why, keeping up with the news has little to no benefit, it won't help you in your day or help the people involved in the story. The news becomes more and more like gossip every day.

Well, if I was going on holidays to Greece or Tunisia this week I'd certainly be keeping up with the news.

zeffabelli

Yes. I realised I have no retention of it, so its pointless me engaging with it.

the dark phantom

catallus wrote: »

Sky is one of the most balanced news channels around!

Its got a tone of Anglo superiority about its reporting which I don't like.
Most of its reporting is very short "bare essentials" of a story, Unless its GB/US in which a frenzy of repeats and live reports begins.

catallus

the dark phantom wrote: »

Its got a tone of Anglo superiority about its reporting which I don't like.
Most of its reporting is very short "bare essentials" of a story, Unless its GB/US in which a frenzy of repeats and live reports begins.

Well in fairness it doesn't pretend to be anything other than a rolling news channel; its editorial line is pretty unbiased, I think.

That said, you're right about the in-depth thing, but there's plenty of other outlets for that.