I’m Tired of Pretending We’re All Getting Our News the Same Way
Look, I’ve been in this game for over 20 years. I’ve seen the rise and fall of print, the birth of digital, and now this weird, messy middle where we’re all just kinda figuring it out. And honestly? It’s exhausting.
I was at a conference in Austin last year, right? Some hotshot from a big tech company stood up and said, “Alright, let’s talk about how we’re all consuming news now.” And I’m sitting there thinking, “Oh boy, here we go.” Because, frankly, the idea that there’s this one, neat way we’re all getting our news is completley ridiculous.
Let me tell you about Marcus. Let’s call him Marcus because, well, that’s not his real name. He’s a friend of a friend, works in finance, lives in Manchester. I ran into him at a coffee shop on 21st about three months ago. We got to talking, and he mentioned he gets all his news from Twitter. “I mean, it’s all there,” he said. “The moment something happens, it’s on there.” I asked him about traditional news outlets, and he just shrugged. “Too slow,” he said. “By the time they report it, I’ve already seen it, discussed it, moved on.”
Which… yeah. Fair enough. But then there’s my mum. Bless her heart. She still gets the physical newspaper delivered every morning. “It’s just how I like it,” she told me last Tuesday when I visited. “I sit down with my tea, and I read. None of this scrolling malarkey.” And you know what? Good for her. She’s happy. She’s informed. She’s not missing much, honestly.
But Here’s the Thing About News Consumption in 2023
It’s not one-size-fits-all. It’s not even one-size-fits-most. It’s a mess. And that’s okay. But what’s not okay is pretending it’s not a mess. We’ve got people like Marcus, glued to their phones, getting news in real-time, and then we’ve got people like my mum, who’d rather wait for the morning paper. And both are valid. Both are important.
But where does that leave us, as journalists? As news consumers? As human beings trying to make sense of the world? It’s a big question, and I’m not sure anyone has the answer. But I do know this: we need to stop pretending we’re all on the same page. We’re not. And that’s okay.
I was having lunch with a colleague named Dave last week. He’s a data journalist, super into all the latest tools and trends. He was going on about how “election news coverage latest” election news coverage latest is all about algorithms now. “It’s the only way to keep up,” he said. And I get that. I do. But at the same time, I can’t help but feel like we’re losing something. The human touch, maybe. The ability to sit down with a cup of tea and read a well-written article without some algorithm deciding what we should see next.
And don’t even get me started on the whole “fake news” thing. It’s a whole other can of worms. But that’s a story for another time.
So What’s the Solution?
I don’t know. Honestly, I don’t. But I do know that we need to stop pretending we’ve got it all figured out. We don’t. And that’s okay. We need to embrace the mess. The chaos. The fact that news consumption in 2023 is a big, complicated, beautiful mess.
I was at a workshop last month, and the speaker said something that stuck with me. “The future of news is not about finding the one right way,” he said. “It’s about finding the many right ways. It’s about embracing the diversity of how we consume news and using that to our advantage.” And I think he’s onto something.
So let’s stop pretending we’re all getting our news the same way. Let’s embrace the mess. Let’s find the many right ways. And let’s move forward from there.
Because at the end of the day, that’s what journalism is all about. It’s about finding the truth, no matter how messy, no matter how complicated. And it’s about sharing that truth with the world, in whatever way works best.
And honestly, that’s all I’ve got. I’m not sure I’ve answered any questions here. But I do know one thing: the future of news is messy. And that’s okay.
About the Author: Sarah Mitchell has been a senior editor for over 20 years, working with major publications across the UK. She’s seen the industry evolve from print to digital and is still figuring out this whole “algorithm” thing. When she’s not editing, you can find her drinking too much coffee and complaining about the weather in Sheffield.
