The News: The Secrets They Don’t Tell You
Are you keen on following the development of news on political, social and economic affairs? It’s okay to be honest.
Usually the eagerness to read today’s front page is trumped by the anticipation of opening the fresh pages of writers in the ranks of J.K Rowling, Stephen King or Pramoedya Ananta Toer for the Indonesian literature connoisseurs.
Traversing the fantastical and often treacherous magical realm with Harry appears to be much, much more inviting than trawling the muggle newspaper to know about the latest Indonesian foreign policy reform.
Don’t feel guilty. Even British philosopher Alain de Botton doesn’t shy away from recognizing that news, however important it is, can inspire the feeling of confusion and outright boredom.
Two headlines read Govt Eases Housing Procedures in New Package and State Firms’ $1 Billion Rights Issue Approved with Terms. For the average person, reading beyond the title requires a good amount of perseverance, dedication and enough pain tolerance. Especially if readers are without sufficient political and economic prior knowledge.
In a time where information travels in breathtaking velocity and news can be easily personalized based on users’ preferences, headlines containing the phrase ‘housing procedures’ and ‘approved with terms’ simply won’t scream as loud as other competitors vying for the valuable (and short) attention span of news consumers.
All the while stories such as ‘DRINK OF DEATH: Moment Woman Watches Her Friend Die After Lacing Her Coffee with Cyanide can effortlessly glide into the collective spotlight, demanding disproportionate attention.
Simple, so as to eschew confusion, and reading it causes the exact reverse of boredom.
The Jakarta Post issue September 20, 2016 displayed on its front page a photograph of a crew of western actors and actresses posing for the cameras while holding trophies awarded for their show’s achievement. The headline reads ‘Game of Thrones’, ‘Veep’ win big at Emmy. The editor-in-chief could defend herself by saying, “but right under the photo is a giant, bold typeface which reads, Time to Get Real with Budget.”
To use the newspaper’s vocabulary: Let’s get real. Why even pit one of the greatest HBO series with a story on the government being more reasonable in determining budget?
Thus, comes the question, are we gradually turning into individuals who care only for the glamorous, the scandalous and the most violent news while being antipathetic towards commonest of occurrences? Will political, economic and social news ever be noteworthy as it was during the dawn of telegraph in the mid-nineteenth century?
T o this crisis of news priority, de Botton says in his 2014 book News: A User’s Manual, “we are standing far too close.”
Opening our eyes just a few centimeters above a painting, we see a scene dominated by a green and brown background, with a little bit of cream color. If urged, we can vaguely make out a picture of trees at the foot of a the mountain in the evening. Or some might even refrain from making any judgement and only see colors without a master design.
If we retract about a meter length from the artwork, we could see that it is actually one of the greatest renaissance painting ever conceived.
’Tis Mona Lisa, a portrait of a woman by Leonardo da Vinci.
Seeing it from too close of a distance is almost a crime as the haunting and atmospheric illusionism, and the enigmatic expression of the woman cannot be appreciated to the fullest. This very crime seems to be the modus operandi of virtually all proper news articles.
For the aficionados of comic books, let me equate it to reading The Amazing Spider-Man volume one starting from issue number fifty of a total of 442:
It just won’t make sense!
“…The habit of randomly dipping readers into a brief moment in a lengthy narrative, then rapidly pulling them out again, while failing to provide any explanation of the wider context in which events have been unfolding, is precisely what occurs in the telling of many of the most important stories that run through our societies, whether an election, a budget negotiation, a foreign policy initiative or a change to the state benefit system. No wonder we get bored.”
Diving straight into the meat and potato of Govt Eases Housing Procedures in New Package, we could grasp that Indonesian President Joko Widodo is aiming to simplify permits for developing affordable housing for the poor. From 33 permits in total to 11; from a whopping duration of 981 days to acquire the permits to only 44. All this to ensure “housing backlog can be reduced to 6.8 million houses in 2019, from 13.5 million houses in 2014,” as quoted in The Jakarta Post issue August 25, 2016. It is still questionable whether eliminating permits equates to higher number of housing demand.
True to Alain de Botton’s view, the impersonality, lack of backstory and context, and data-laden reporting causes the news to be frigid and seemingly without implication to our daily lives. Ultimately, confusing and boring, and difficult to care about.
Heads up! Incoming news, Govt Delays Procurement due to Budget Cuts!
Imagine repackaging the story in a new way. A feature that pulls on the heart strings of the readers and provides a stage on which readers can exercise their sense of morality.
The feature will not be lifeless, no. The story will ebb and flow. It eases when it needs to and take the readers out of their comfort zone to give greater impact. And just like any proper novel, it gives readers a reward of captivating backstory to keep them glued during the entirety of the ride. It is intellectually and emotionally challenging.
Consider this reconstruction.
“A chief of a civilization seeks to give dignified living circumstances to his most impoverished and neglected people by encouraging the building of inexpensive homes.
Sadly, thick and convoluted processes successfully killed the eagerness of property companies to house the needy.
Developers have the resources. There are people who need the houses. Why should the red tape fiasco prevail?
Having vowed to make providing his people with 1,000,000 abode as his main endeavor during his reign, President Joko Widodo, through his government, slashed the layers of bureaucracy and waiting time into a fraction of what they once were. His answer could revive housing projects which have grind to a screeching halt.
Or could it?
Many doubt the potency of this maneuver. Although the meaning behind the gesture is well received, pundits like Indonesian Institute of Sciences economist Latif Adam dare shake others awake from this idealist day dream.
“Scrapping these permits will not automatically increase public demand because they are using a partial approach,” Adam voiced his skepticism.
Both he and Bank Central Asia Chief Economist David Sumual preached that subsidizing the wickedly high interest rates of property sector should be thrown into the mix if the ‘Jokowi’ vision is to be finally realized.”
End
There is an advantage in producing a news, not necessarily like the above, but in the same vein. It appeals to the readers’ humanity as well as the need for literary workmanship. In an instant a banal news on reform is more endearing than ever before.
Journalists need not be as virtuosic as Edgar Allan Poe or as romantic as Shakespeare, but it is always a good idea to emulate the masters when it comes to storytelling through the art of writing.
While this is good and all, it turns out that making news enjoyable is not of the media’s concern. Cold hard facts reporting is the pinnacle of the journalistic professionalism. Or so they say.
“Unfortunately for our levels of engagement, there is a prejudice at large within many news organizations that the most prestigious aspect of journalism is the dispassionate and neutral presentation of ‘facts’.”
Yes, unfortunate indeed.
If American politician Ralph Nader pronounces, “information is the currency of democracy,” then one of the worst nightmare of a democratic nation is the restriction of information.
However, a new terror is brewing and only a few have seen its silhouette. And this creature is the product of democracy and neutral reportage:
Unadulterated exchange of detailed, accurate, relevant, timely facts which results in absolutely nothing.
An overflowing well of information is of no use if no one can fathom it. Similarly, it is useless, too, if nobody is even interested in delving into its depth.
Patrick Ness, perfectly capturing today’s grim zeitgeist, says, “in the world of numbness and information overload, the ability to feel, my boy, is a rare gift indeed.’
So, are we ready to fill the sterile news with a little bit of life?
