2012 was the year I stopped reading newspapers.
After a lifetime of ritual, I realised the act of
purchasing, unfolding and thoughtfully trawling through a newspaper was like an
out-dated religious ceremony long divorced from any original faith and belief.
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| "How many advertising brochures can they fit in this paper?" |
Two hundred years ago buying and reading a newspaper meant
you were helping battle ignorance, and helping build a “fourth estate” that was
a bulwark against repressive and unrepresentative governments.
Not now. Buying and
reading a newspaper is more an act of consumption, the forced swallowing of square
metres of advertising and corporate messages from those that can afford it.
Truly, the realisation that I do not have to feel guilty about not purchasing the Sydney
Morning Herald each week end is liberating.
What broke the habit was the Gillard misogynist speech.
It was a fascinating speech that addressed an issue that
personally resonated within so many people.
It was grand theatre that meant
something.
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| They don't make papers like this any more (hooray). Benjamin Franklin 1750 |
What did it mean to the machinations of Parliament over the
next 24 hours? And they even got that wrong.
They said it was a miscalculated rant designed to preserve
the political skin of Peter Slipper.
Most everyone else said it was a speech of importance that would persevere,
much long than the career or memory of Peter Slipper.
The lack of touch and perception by some newspaper columnists was
exposed by the furious movement of opinion and comment over the web.
Especially on social media sites, countless people explained
how the speech touched on what they experienced in their lives, how it
electrified them. It was plain the
paper giants had got it wrong.
To me, the columnist line that the Gillard speech was a “misguided
rant” looks like it was a line fed or created by professional political media
advisers.
That makes sense because I know journalists are
outnumbered and harassed by media advisers, whom have more time and resources
at their command than the harried journalist.
If so, it is an indication that some newspaper commentators are
embedded in the castle up on the hill with those that govern. They look down upon us through the arrow
slits in the towers.
The misogynist speech revealed to me I could get the
news I wanted from linked pages, not inked pages. So why should I persist in buying newspapers?
The forsaking of the newspaper gospel was slightly shocking
to myself. I used to consider the great
columnists such as Alan Ramsey and Michelle Grattan as infallible and all-knowing
giants.
Nowadays I go online and search for pieces by Daniel Hurst
and Steve Wardill, both of whom I feel know the issues on the grounds outside the
castle on the hill. And anything by Daryl Passmore and Kelmeny Fraser gets my attention.
For the others who have also abandoned the sacraments of the
newspaper, we have found it is surprisingly not such as drastic change.
We had not fully realised we had already virtually stopped
reading them anyhow. Most of us are
already getting our news from websites, or links on social media sites.
However, I still get ink on my fingertips. I read my local
newspaper: it arrives free on my doorstep. I like to see if anyone I know is in it, and
who is writing letters to the editor.
This kind of intimate newspaper experience probably reflects
the desires and needs of the original newspaper readers two hundred years ago.
Do we need to despair that so many like me are perhaps
condemning the daily newspaper to death?
Are we contributing to the demise of reporting?
Simply, no. Some broadsheets and tabloids may be on their
way to extinction, but journalism is alive and thriving.
After all, the human need for news and gossip, timely and
fresh, is as strong as ever. The internet
means reporters and journalists can fill that human craving in an instant.
For the rest of those who have stopped reading newspapers in
2012, even if they do not admit it to themselves, we will continue to pursue
the news and a good read.
We have just forsaken the crinkly pages of newsprint to find
the truth and facts that reflect the world we know.
