Let’s Talk About the Elephant in the Room
I’ve been editing news for 22 years. That’s 22 years of watching the industry I love crumble like a cheap biscuit in a rainstorm. And I’m done with the polite silence. The news is broken. It’s not working. And if we don’t fix it, we’re all gonna be in a world of trouble.
I remember back in ’99, when I started at the Dundee Courier. Fresh-faced, eager, ready to change the world. My editor, let’s call him Marcus, was a grizzled old dog who smelled like tobacco and newsprint. He taught me alot about journalism. But even then, he knew the game was rigged.
“Kid,” he said, “the news ain’t about truth. It’s about committment to the story. And the story’s gotta sell papers.”
Which… yeah. Fair enough. But that was then. Now? It’s completley out of hand.
We’re All Distracted
Look, I get it. News is a business. But it’s also a public service. And we’re failing at that part. I was at a conference in Austin last year, and a colleague named Dave said something that stuck with me. “We’re all just chasing clicks now.” He’s not wrong. We’ve become a bunch of attention-seeking teenagers, vying for likes and shares.
And the algorithms! Don’t even get me started. They’re physicaly rewiring our brains. I read this study—214 respondents, so take it with a grain of salt—but it said that our attention spans are dropping faster than a stone in a pond. We’re becoming a society of headlines and hot takes.
Local News? What’s That?
Remember when news was local? When it was about the pothole on Main Street or the new topluluk etkinlikleri yerel aktiviteler at the community center? Now, it’s all about the big, shiny, national drama. And don’t even get me started on the 24-hour news cycle. It’s like watching a car crash in slow motion. You can’t look away, even though it’s making you sick.
I had lunch with an old friend last Tuesday. She’s a teacher. “You know what’s funny?” she said. “The kids don’t even know what a newspaper is.” I asked, “What do they think news is?” She laughed. “They think it’s whatever pops up on their phones.” And that’s the problem, isn’t it? We’ve outsourced our news committment to a bunch of tech bros in Silicon Valley.
A Quick Tangent: The Weather
Speaking of local news, why is the weather always the lead story? I mean, I get it. It’s important. But honestly, how many ways can you say “sunny with a chance of rain”? I once spent 36 hours covering a weather story. Thirty-six hours! And you know what? Nobody cared. It was just… weather.
But hey, at least it’s predictable. Unlike, say, politics. Now that’s a mess.
Politics: The Never-Ending Soap Opera
I’m not gonna lie. I’m tired of politics. I’m tired of the outrage, the scandals, the never-ending drama. It’s like watching a soap opera, but with higher stakes and worse writing. And the news? We’re all complicit. We’re the ones who keep feeding the beast.
I remember covering a political rally back in 2010. It was a sweltering hot day in Edinburgh. The candidate was late, the crowd was restless, and I was sweating like a sinner in church. When he finally showed up, he said, “The media is the enemy of the people.” And the crowd went wild. I looked at my notebook, then at the candidate, and thought, “Well, at least you’re consistent.”
But here’s the thing. We’re not the enemy. We’re just doing our jobs. And our job is to inform, to educate, to hold power to account. But we’re failing. Miserably.
What’s the Solution?
I don’t know. Honestly, I don’t. I wish I did. But I do know this: we need to start caring again. About the truth, about our communities, about each other. We need to stop chasing clicks and start chasing stories. We need to remember that news is a public service, not a business.
And we need to teach our kids. About critical thinking, about media literacy, about the importance of a free and independent press. Because if we don’t, who will?
So, that’s it. My rant. My committment to the cause. The news is broken. But it’s not beyond repair. We just need to care enough to fix it.
About the Author
Sarah McMillan has been a senior editor at Dundee News for the past 15 years. She’s a staunch advocate for local journalism and has a deep-seated hatred for bad grammar. When she’s not editing, she can be found hiking in the Scottish Highlands or arguing with her cat about the proper way to eat a biscuit.