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Tips for the Informed News Consumer

This Rock Volume 18, Number 8   October 2007     Reasons for Hope By Cherie Peacock   Letters   What Apologists Need to Know about Rhetoric: Lessons from Aristotle By Gregory R. Beabout   Saintly Rhetoric?   The Art of Rhetoric in the Acts of the Apostles   Talkin’ ‘Bout My Generation: The Simpsons, the Boomers, and Religion By Robert P. Lockwood   Why Baby Boomers Left the Church . . .   Poster Boys for Perpetual Adolescence   Read All About It: Why Catholics Should Care About the News Media Crisis By Russell Shaw   Tips for the Informed News Consumer   Resources for the Media-Savvy   Let the Children Come to Me: The International Theological Commission Clarifies Limbo By Matthew A. C. Newsome   Hope for Our Simon   An Excerpt from "The Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Die without Being Baptized"   Damascus Road Why I Came Back to the Body of Christ By Chris A. DeVolld   By the Book Hell? Yes! (Part I) By Jim Blackburn   Eyes to See Time and Eternity in the Balance By Michael Schrauzer   Truth be Told Twenty-Six Crosses on a Hill By Matthew E. Bunson   Quick Questions   Last Writes By Karl Keating    Subscribe    Permissions

How can you be an informed, responsible consumer of news media? Here are nine suggestions.

1. Get your news from more than one source, more than one medium, and more than one ideological perspective. If you think Fox News is great, be sure also to listen to NPR—and vice versa. Observing how different news organizations cover stories, including the same story, trains you to make comparisons, and making comparisons is essential to informed analysis of media performance.
2. Strictly limit your intake of talk radio, blogs, and TV interview shows whose hosts specialize in bullying and humiliating guests. These may be entertaining and occasionally informative, but they are not reliable sources of news.
3. Read serious books about the news business. (See "Resources for the Media-Savvy," page 22)
4. Acquire sound ethical standards for evaluating media.
5. Now and then invite journalists to speak to your parish adult education program or other group. Let them tell you how they cover the news. Ask questions. Engage them in dialogue.
6. Discuss the news media with others—family, neighbors, friends. Consider not only what is covered but how it is covered. Consider joining or forming a group for this purpose.
7. Read intelligent media criticism (if you can find it) in your daily newspaper and the magazines you get. This means more than skimming TV listings and Hollywood gossip. See how professional journalists themselves size up their trade.
8. Write well-reasoned, polite letters to editors and news directors. Commend them for good work. Offer constructive criticism when they fall short.
9. Above all, be selective about what you and your family read and watch and listen to. Skip media junk food. Concentrate on high-quality, meaty fare.