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09/27/2001 Archived Entry: "Newspapers"
Read from cover to cover today: The Times broadsheet, The Times 2 supplement, Guardian 2 supplement, Guardian Online supplement, The Business (FT supplement) and The Times Higher Education Supplement*.
I have to admit that today was a bit of an extreme day but by and large if there are enough newspapers and supplements available, I'll read them all.
The reason I bring this up is because I was recently having a conversation with a perfectly intelligent and seemingly informed friend of mine who confessed that she didn't read any newspapers at all. I found this a little unusual and said so. Apparently lack of time was the deciding factor.
Generally I try to make time to read the newspapers. I'm sure I could get by without reading them, just as I could get by without watching the television or to a lesser extent using the Internet. However, that's not the point - we can get by without most things, but in most cases the reason we continue to do them is because we derive some kind of enjoyment or payoff for what we do.
Identifying that payoff from reading newspapers took a bit of thought for me. Most people will say, 'Well, what does Israel/the recession in Japan/the merger of AOL-Time Warner/the price of cheese have to do with me?" and then leave it at that. I'm not going to take the ultra-holistic argument here, but I will steal a quotation from an economist for my use here:
"The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed, the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back..."Substitute 'economics' for 'seemingly irrelevant current affairs' and you might appreciate what I mean. What we read in newspapers does affect us and they can help us understand the present situation - and even sometimes directly or indirectly help us to make more informed decisions in the future that could improve the lives of ourselves or others.
But, okay, I've just stated the obvious.
The other major advantage of reading newspapers is that they provide an effectively limitless source of interesting stories. They're very entertaining, and quite cheap. Also, they provide a common point of reference for conversations with friends and allow you to exhibit your superior knowledge of current events in order to impress people - and who hasn't attempted to do that in the past?
*I didn't read the Guardian broadsheet as I thought that might have been pushing it a little.