You are not a real news junkie if you don’t change the channel

My kids have rules for the “screen time” they allow their kids. It is obvious they do not understand the relationship between television/computer use and learning to be linear. There is some benefit with reasonable amounts of time spent, but at some point increased viewing time becomes a detriment.

I am thinking similar rules should apply to adult viewing of television “news” channels. I think the daily limit on Fox News should be 30 minutes. After that amount of time, continued use should be regarded as hazardous to your intellect. Many viewers seem  convinced they are learning more and more as their viewing time to the same channel increases, but their perspective is often becoming more and more biased instead. It is possible this same principle applies to other stations, but I am certain this is the case with Fox.

I think there are remedies, but most require acceptance and purposeful action. Here is my favorite example of how critical thinking and openness can be encouraged. It involves the content I read online. I know of no comparable mechanism for television viewers. I am not certain that the radicalization of the full time news channels can be remediated. The strategy of these channels is to retain viewers with a given existing perspective and there is little commitment to critical examination of real issues that might alienate the intended audience.

Anyway, here is a quick description of an imposed process I think makes some sense. I am a fan of News360. There is a News360 extension available for several computer-based web browsers called News360 Periscope. This extension adds some of the functionality of News360 to general web browsing. When you view a news article that exists within the News360 database, the extension notices this selection and displays additional viewing  options identified by News360. Now, you can not only read the page you intended to read, but you can also explore a variety of pages from other sources focused on the same “story”. This approach provides the opportunity to consider how other sources have treated the same story and potentially identify different interpretations.

So, for example, today I saw a link to a CNN story on the Chicago teacher strike in my iGoogle news feed. I select this link which brings up the story, but because the topic has been identified by News360, I am also provided multiple options (see top of the image) to other sources covering this same topic. I suppose I can ignore these options, but at least I should not assume that the source I am viewing is the only source that exists.

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