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  • Added September 12th, 2014
  • Filed under 'All Sorts'
  • Viewed 1970 times

WHAT IS 'NEWS' - WHO WILL INFORM US?

By Donald Phillipps in All Sorts

Is the good news of the Gospel anything to do with news in the newspaper or news on Tv or news we can access on our computer?

WHAT IS 'NEWS' - WHO WILL INFORM US?
A BBC announcer, on Good Friday, 1930, said "Ladies and gentlemen, there is no news tonight, so here is
some music."
For centuries most of the news in newspapers was foreign. Domestic news carried the danger of attracting government censorship - there was little by way of analysis or comment. What was offered was undigested and unexplained - a miscellany of things that weren't all that relevant. Ships arrived in port, dignatories arrived at court, share prices rose and fell, generals were appointed or relieved of command.

Is that so very different from the celebrity relationships, or the political manoeuverings, that today's papers so painstakingly report?
In the lead-up to the election this year how on earth can we judge the merits of anything when the centre of attention has been on whether information we are being given has been obtained legally or not. Or whether it is even remotely near the truth because of accusations about the characters themselves, of the purveyors of the facts. It seems today as if nothing can be discussed or reported calmly.
We are assailed by examples of cruelty, injustice, falsehood, hypocrisy, greed and incompetence, sometimes in a single story. We are in danger of getting so distracted by the ever-changing agenda of the news that we wind up unable to develop political or ethical positions of any kind. We may lose track of which of the many claimed outrages really matter to us, or what it was that we felt we cared about so passionately only hours ago.
There is, it seems, especially in Tv news reporting, an anxiety to be first with the news, to maximise reader comments, to create heat, sound and more fury and thus add to the sense of confusion. Today's news is full of loose ends. Events are set out in such a disorganised, fractured and intermittent way that it is difficult to hold on to the thread of the most important issues for any length of time. If people are increasingly cynical and apathetic about public affairs, surely the responsibility lies as much with the news media as with politicians.
But in today's world of online news sites and sophisticated search engines we are able to create our own priorities and pursue our own interests. If there is an important story we want to follow we can expect almost minute-by-minute updates. Errors, misconceptions, and unwarranted speculation can be corrected or modified. There aren't space limitations so we can ourselves get all the background we need by way of expert analysis and documentation.

These thoughts were occasioned by an article in New Statesman earlier this year. The author, Peter Wilby, claimed that newspapers are still the most important medium for understanding the world. I would like to agree with him - I certainly can in terms of my preference for newspapers over Tv as a source of understanding.
But what really happened in the pre-printing-press world, in terms of disseminating the news. News was usually exchanged amid the babble of the marketplace, or the tavern, where truth competed with rumour, mishearing and misunderstanding.
Let's think of just one biblical example. There was a day in the life of Jerusalem when the crowd heard of the arrival of a man from the Galilee region who was renowned for the good stories he told, the healing miracles he had performed, and the strange message he had to share. That crowd went to the gate through which he was to enter the city, and with palm fronds in their hands cheered him to the echo. He was, for the moment, the popular hero
Less than a week later that same crowd was standing in the forecourt of the Governor's residence shrieking for the blood, for the death, of that same man from Galilee. How did they so change their mind? Did they get their lead from the 'babble of the market place ... where truth competed with rumour, mishearing and misunderstanding?' Is that the world to which we seem to be returning?
Have you ever wondered, even for a moment, why it is that we call the Gospel of Jesus of Nazareth 'Good News? Is the good news of the Gospel anything to do with news in the newspaper or news on Tv or news we can access on our computer? Surely it has to be. However special it is, it is still good news for every human being - and, strange as it may seem, we are the best people to share it!
Donald Phillipps