Sorry if this is a poor opening post, but I don't have much of a beginning opinion and would rather see what you all have to say. I ask this because I hear a lot of people complaining that many things that make the news are not what they deem "newsworthy." These would include entertainment/celebrity stories, personal/emotional stories, etc. I have one further question: is "newsworthy" better defined by positive characteristics or by negative ones, ie, what is "newsworthy" is not a celebrity story, personal story, etc.

If it affects my life.

Brittany bashing a car with umbrella -> No.
Russia invading Georgia -> Yes.
Winner of American idol -> No
Winner of olympics -> Maybe.

I might use 2 and 4 in conversation, but not 1 or 3. I would walk away from a person that starts talking about that shit.

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I might use 2 and 4 in conversation, but not 1 or 3. I would walk away from a person that starts talking about that shit.

Lol, me too. This, alone, would tell me what kind of person they are. I need no further information about them or their interests, they are immediately cut from my prospective roster.

Lol, me too. This, alone, would tell me what kind of person they are. I need no further information about them or their interests, they are immediately cut from my prospective roster.

While I can understand the thinking behind it, dismissing someone because they happened to mention Topic X is rather narrow-minded and might cause you to miss a few opportunities. If they consistently talked about frivolous bullshit and refused to talk something more substantive, I'd say fuck 'em but I wouldn't just write them off at the first mention of Britney Spears.

Just from classroom discussions I can tell you that plenty of superficially superficial people can contribute intelligent thoughts when encouraged to do so.

While I can understand the thinking behind it, dismissing someone because they happened to mention Topic X is rather narrow-minded and might cause you to miss a few opportunities. If they consistently talked about frivolous bullshit and refused to talk something more substantive, I'd say fuck 'em but I wouldn't just write them off at the first mention of Britney Spears.

Just from classroom discussions I can tell you that plenty of superficially superficial people can contribute intelligent thoughts when encouraged to do so.

Good point. I just try to minimize my informational intake on a daily basis, so if a person talks as such, I will regularly disregard them on the basis of probability. Sometimes I will be giving up a valuable conversation, but I would imagine more often than not, I will not be doing so.

While I can understand the thinking behind it, dismissing someone because they happened to mention Topic X is rather narrow-minded and might cause you to miss a few opportunities. If they consistently talked about frivolous bullshit and refused to talk something more substantive, I'd say fuck 'em but I wouldn't just write them off at the first mention of Britney Spears.

Just from classroom discussions I can tell you that plenty of superficially superficial people can contribute intelligent thoughts when encouraged to do so.

I was talking about the people who say "Who cares?" when you ask them about anything outside of their world.

Sports, weather, local politics, road closures, etc.

Russia invading Georgia is of no significance. I live neither in Russia or Georgia, so why should or would I care?

Sports, weather, local politics, road closures, etc.

Russia invading Georgia is of no significance. I live neither in Russia or Georgia, so why should or would I care?

Because if the US wants to get involved, you get to pay more taxes.

And sports? How do multimillionaires playing with balls have anything to do with your life?

Newsworthy is information that "empowers" me.

That gives me a better understanding of what is going on in the world to make better decisions for myself and possibly for my country and/or humanity.

I get the impression that is definitely NOT the kind of information some people want distributed. We are to be bombarded with irrelevant bullshit. The less we know that matters the better for the power structure trying to lead us by the nose.

This kind of stuff is newsworthy:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3947724357632360753&ei=gsWpSP-GK4OK4AKP3Pn7BA&q=economic+hitman&vt=lf&hl=en

http://freedocumentaries.org/film.php?id=115

Often you don't hear about things like this until years after the fact but it gives you ideas about what is really going on in the world and has been for decades and demonstrates what shallow crap we are normally bombarded with.

What would have happened if EVERYONE had read this 30 years ago?

http://www.amazon.com/screwing-average-man-David-Hapgood/dp/B0006W84KK

DT

Because if the US wants to get involved, you get to pay more taxes.

And sports? How do multimillionaires playing with balls have anything to do with your life?

Are you assuming you know who I am; know what my life revolves around; the skills and training I have received over my life; the area which I live; the area where I work; the people who I know; my friends; my collegues; my religion?

How could you possibly make any such claim to know what concerns my life with absolutely no knowledge of who I am other than my account name (Big Steamers) and place of residence (Republic of Texas)?

Furthermore, the idea of newsworthy should be more akin to entertainment than vital. It is possible to go without media which is the provider of news; to go without intelligence is to ignore education - which above all else is the foundation of understanding, that and proper motivation.

Today, most of what passes for news is gossip or trivia.

According to the Associated Press stylebook, news is anything which affects or may affect the status quo. The greater the effect, the more newsworthy the story.

This is why local or state elections don't make national headlines, for instance. One exception being the election of a non-white being elected governor of Louisiana.

Anything that sells.

I wouldn't write somebody off for mentioning something trivial. I do it occasionally, as a joke, because if you turn on the tv or use the internet, it's almost impossible to avoid hearing those things. If I could tell they really cared or really though it was important though, they wouldn't be my friend.

The one thing about the media that really grinds my gears is that whenever some rich white girl goes missing and they act like it's the goddamn end of the world or something.

The one thing about the media that really grinds my gears is that whenever some human goes missing and they act like it's the goddamn end of the world or something.

Fixed.

I know the rich white girl demographic has tendencies to be annoying as fuck,but let's not pander to stereotypes.They're people too..kinda.:D

Rather the media used its resources to publicise the disappearance of some rich whitey than have it inform me about other rich whiteys are having for breakfast these days.It would be nice if they could give disappearing poor non-white people the same credence but you can't have everything.

Of course,I'd prefer real news above all of this.