NOT A HYSTERICAL HEADLINE!

In a few more days we will overstuff our suitcases and head for home.  The kids have been asking, begging, really -- When are we coming home?  They miss their friends, and the ease of access to those friends.  They miss our animals.  So do I.

I am torn.  I want to get back to normalcy, to routine -- not that summer vacation is the time for that, but never mind.  I miss my friends, our neighbors.  Reading all the latest "ideological conversations" (in the words of one neighbor) via community  listserv does not quite satisfy.

There are things here I will miss.

The cool weather, and the rain.  

Public parks, open farmland, trees.  

The convenience of buses, trains, and the Underground.   

People who wait patiently while others disembark from buses, trains and the Underground.  

The Science Museum, the Natural History Museum, the National Gallery.  

Every type of bird in the garden.  Squirrels.

Electric sockets with built-in switches.  

Trees.

What I will not miss:  Histrionic headlines preceding dumb-downed, hyperbolic newspaper pieces that preempt rational analysis and deter all optimism.  

There are real reasons for worry here.  Swine flu is spreading, a few have died.  Thousands are ill but most will recover after a few days and without hospitalization.  Newspaper headlines only inflame the panic. So when a young man gone missing in Katoomba, Australia was found alive and healthy after nearly two weeks in the wilderness, I took that as encouraging, hopeful, a reason for national celebration.   

Yet a Kew station news poster screamed, "DAD CHASTISES SON FOR HIKING ALONE!"  I mean, really. What a lost opportunity.  I see this type of thing posted on mortar boards, morning and evening, and think, Hey, Londoners, why do you do it to yourselves?  The constant cloud cover isn't enough? 

Not much balance there.

ALN 

Verlyn on the Familiar

Today's piece is on the geography of familiarity. Here's a taste:

Recently, I’ve been thinking about the geography of familiarity. By that I mean something like a map of my habitat, the paths I travel most often, the places I feel most comfortable, the routines embedded in the rural and urban landscapes I know best. Most days, familiarity seems inherent in the world right around me, but every now and then I remember that it’s really an artifact of consciousness, a form of perception that can be lost, say, in someone with Alzheimer’s. (New York Times online, June 3, 2009)

What can I say.... I'm inspired, yet again. His thoughts speak to my mind and soul. I hope you feel the same.

Thank you yet again, Mr. Klinkenborg, for getting it so right.

ALN

Basic Facts

Our neighbor Y has asked me to update his wife S's story (back here).  He writes as follows:

S's Paris-based boss, the CFO of her company, was shocked to find out yesterday, while speaking with her on the phone, that missiles and rockets actually fall on Be'er Sheva!

After having been upset with him (and the rest of her French colleagues) for not calling over the past two weeks to ask how are they getting along in Be'er-Sheva, he called yesterday to talk about work.  Suddenly, the siren went off, and S apologized politely, saying she has to go to the Mamad (bomb shelter).  

He replied with a very loud WHAT???? and was shocked to learn that Be'er-Sheva, along with all the other nearby Israeli towns, was under fire. 

Now, we are not talking about a peasant from Provence who couldn't care less about foreign news;   this is an intelligent person, working in the field of mass-media, watching the news.  The only information he receives through TV is that Israel is flattening Gaza and its citizens.  

He apologized and said he feels terrible for being so ignorant, but is there a better example for the combination of bad hasbara (PR) and simple anti-Israelism? (I think I just made that word up).

S and Y, thanks for the update.   And I believe the term you're looking for is anti-semitism.  'Nuff said.  

Keep the balance,

ALN

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Addendum:  Here's one of the more balanced articles on offer c/o the New York Times.

Read This

Go Meryl.   How painful to understand that this is the reality.  How I wish it weren't.

Reporting the Subtleties

Please take the time to read Susan Dentzer's excellent piece, just published online in the New England Journal of Medicine.  There she focuses on medical reporting, but her point -- that in general, journalists must make more of an effort to present the context and complicated subtleties of an issue -- pertains to all fields of journalism. 

I will avoid falling prey to the picking-and-choosing tendency she describes but not offering selected quotes here, but for her article's valuable conclusions:

In my view, we in the news media have a responsibility to hold ourselves to higher standards if there is any chance that doctors and patients will act on the basis of our reporting. We are not clinicians, but we must be more than carnival barkers; we must be credible health communicators more interested in conveying clear, actionable health information to the public than carrying out our other agendas. There is strong evidence that many journalists agree — and in particular, consider themselves poorly trained to understand medical studies and statistics.⁵ But not only should our profession demand better training of health journalists, it should also require that health stories, rather than being rendered in black and white, use all the grays on the palette to paint a comprehensive picture of inevitably complex realties. Journalists could start by imposing on their work a "prudent reader or viewer" test: On the basis of my news account, what would a prudent person do or assume about a given medical intervention, and did I therefore succeed in delivering the best public health message possible?

Ms. Dentzer goes on to point out that those interviewed also have the responsibility to aid their interviewing journalists by discussing medical issues and research results in context.

The field of journalism is in the midst of an incredible transformation, as printed formats are becoming less financially viable, more centrally-owned, and altogether fewer, while the electronic media is broadening in scope, availability, and approach.   Bloggers are a central part of this change, with our ability to respond to events and share our viewpoints immediately and openly, and with this ability comes a responsibility to write with thoughtfulness and respect.  

As readers and viewers, we must also commit ourselves to approaching the media with enough self respect to avoid sensational headlines and reject simplified descriptions.  Do we read about a medical study or a political situation and take it at face value, allowing it to limit our understanding, narrow our outlook and increase our fears?  Or do we take advantage of the many tools available to explore the issue, ask questions, look beyond try to see the issue in greater depth?  Do we complain that the headlines are sensationalistic, then go and buy the paper anyway, or blithely quote some study we don't really understand? 

Bottom line:  Publishers and reporters must commit themselves, as Ms. Dentzer has done, to greater depth and breadth when reporting wars and politics, social and geographic changes, global issues and -- dare I add -- even celebrity personalities and events.  And we, as media consumers, must share this responsibility.

Keep the balance,

ALN