We are all faced with a silent killer who demands to be chained up and stopped in his tracks. This Silent Killer is known by a familiar name. That name is Breaking News.
Breaking News is breaking our hearts, wreaking havoc on our senses, and may be a factor in the alarm being sounded about the pervasiveness of depression, sadness, and feelings of loneliness in America. We have not realized, let alone assessed, the hourly damage that is inflicted on a nation of people through a seemingly benign commodity known as Breaking News.
Breaking news is rarely, if ever, good news. The news that pours into our psyche and visual cortex is most often a report of men, women and, more often than not, children dying; college students being killed; mistakes like driving down the wrong driveway or knocking on the wrong door and resulting in a shooting or death; a collapsing building; or an indicted former president. In the form of Breaking News, each of these stories assaulted our senses and assaulted our sensibilities.
More than 20 years ago, the current chancellor of North Carolina Central University, Dr. Johnson Akinleye, shared with me that his mother was visiting from Nigeria. He mentioned that he questioned the logic of the 24-hour news cycle, especially since much of the news was disturbing. In Nigeria, the news broke in the morning and it didn’t happen again until the next morning. Mrs. Akinleye knew that the uninterrupted ingestion of bad news from the United States was not a good thing for her or for America.
Today, more and more people are lamenting the danger of normalizing things that are simply not normal. This is precisely the unfortunate byproduct of Breaking News. Mrs. Akinleye knew that America was on the way to normalizing the worst of us.
Therefore, I have decided to become a vigilant gatekeeper when it comes to Breaking News. I ask family and friends not to call or text me about Breaking News. I will be the one to decide when I am intellectually, psychologically and emotionally ready to receive Breaking News. If breaking news is announced, I will quickly turn down the volume. I will look to another room in my house.
I have decided not to look at my phone when I wake up in the morning. I’ve decided that I won’t start each day with statements like, “Five dead,” Gunman shot after killing eight,” or “I won’t move on yet…” I’ll no longer act as if I’m powerless to divorce myself from my emotions, of my feelings, my sense of well-being, my passion for life and my positive and hopeful feelings about the world that, through Breaking News, attacks me.
I just don’t want to be a sponge on Breaking News anymore. Also, even sponges need to be washed and dried, otherwise they smell, and sometimes mold develops and shows signs of improper use and care.
I’m a university professor and of course I want to know what’s going on in the world. I talk to my students all the time about the need to be informed and be able to have informed conversations about local, national and international current affairs and news. There are an unlimited number of things I want them to know and care about.
The problem is that the news that assaults our senses and makes us make a big deal…the news that makes us stop and stare or listen in pain and disbelief…the news that, as Marvin said Gaye, “makes me want to scream and get over them both.” your hands” trumps good news to the point of being almost non-existent, at least when it comes to Breaking News.
I request a break from Breaking News. A deliberate pause is required. If that’s not possible, and some will say it’s not, then let there be a Breaking News that also uplifts us, celebrates us as human beings and makes most, if not all, of us smile… even if it’s for a second. or two Who Said Breaking News Has To Be Horrible, Creepy, And Scary? it doesn’t
We are all suffering the consequences of being damaged by Breaking News…mostly unacknowledged and therefore untreated. It’s too much to take on while striving to grow a life that is balanced and productive and has a measure of predictability. In the end, we just need a break.
Dr. Claudette McFadden is a professor of Communication Studies at Bethune-Cookman University.
