Gossip vs. News - Where do we draw the line?
October 16th, 2004A brief note. There have been several essays that I have posted in other forums that I would both like to keep and have available for others to read. This is one of those essays.
Definitions from Dictionary.com (Additional formatting added by me):
News
pl.n. (used with a sing. verb)
- Information about recent events or happenings, especially as reported by newspapers, periodicals, radio, or television.
- A presentation of such information, as in a newspaper or on a newscast.
- New information of any kind: The requirement was news to him.
- Newsworthy material: “a public figure on a scale unimaginable in America; whatever he did was news” (James Atlas).
Gos·sip
n.
- Rumor or talk of a personal, sensational, or intimate nature.
- A person who habitually spreads intimate or private rumors or facts.[li]Trivial, chatty talk or writing.
- A close friend or companion.
Ok, so now that we have definitions, what are you getting at, FG?
Well, I’ve been thinking a lot about this. I know a lot of people who discount gossip as something that women or secretaries do. Something that has no bearing on the world around us and “what’s the point?” sort of things. In my experience, this is not the truth.
Rumor mills are very important to many cultures within the US - schools, workplaces, families, circles of friends, etc. If you have your ear to the ground and listen to (and share) gossip, you tend to know what’s coming down the pipes. People may hear of layoffs well before they become official due to gossip or can prepare for a major event because of a rumor they heard. Gossip *can* be malicious, intending to hurt someone, but I find most often it’s just an unofficial way of spreading news before it becomes REAL news.
But then I think about the news media. The mainstream media inundates us with stories that really fall more into the realm of gossip. The political bashing on both sides smacks of gossip to me. Most scandals involving sex or other indiscretions have little bearing on the running of the country, but take up so much of our reporters’ time. We hear about how Kobe raped a woman or how Winona shoplifted, but it doesn’t just come from entertainment sources or even infotainment, this stuff is coming from what we’ve long believed were valid and legitimate news sources.
So where do we draw the line? If our news consists mostly of gossip and our gossip consists of that which will be news (or already is in some cases), then why are we so reliant on mainstream news sources to supply us with a steady stream of little more than bigger gossip than we, personally, experience or hear?
Much of the American public hungers for the next scandal. We can’t wait to hear about the exploits of our politicians, especially those we disagree with. When we are exposed to this information, some will notice it for what it is, but others cry out for more. The media feeds our hunger for “Rumor or talk of a personal, sensational, or intimate nature“, while our need to be informed of things that affect us personally or globally is essentially ignored in many situations.
I don’t know. It seems to me that we’re sacrificing hard-hitting information of events of greater import for more palatable and scandalous gossip. I just wish I knew how to change it. In the meantime, I’ll just keep my ear to the ground and my grapevine flourishing. I may be a gossip, but at least I’m rarely out of the loop.
~FG };^>
