I left a comment on this post at the LFPress Editor’s Blog about the traffic disparity between Tori Stafford-related livestreams (up to over 5,000 viewers) and yesterday’s Beyond the Crisis panel (55 viewers — it would have been 56 if I didn’t have to work).
By chance, a food metaphor popped into my head: some news stories are high in refined sugar and starch, giving readers and viewers a big kick that wears off fast, which generates cravings for another dose and eventually turns into a series of highs, with nothing actually developed for the reader — nothing learned, nothing they can use creatively.
The Stafford coverage doesn’t exactly fit that. I wouldn’t say it is all “empty calories” because it is a real tragedy. I’d put it somewhere in the fruits and vegetables category.
Fruits and vegetables are where we get most of our vitamins and fibre. These are the real news stories — some sweet, some bitter or sour — that digest fast (some go right through) and keep our energy up. In short, daily news keeps us vital and healthy.
Something to be careful of, though, is some of the juiciest stories turn out to be “fruit drink” — nothing but the empty calories of gossip, or highly refined press release journalism from the entertainment world.
Fruit and vegetables aren’t enough. We we need protein to regulate our blood sugar levels and to build muscle. It also burns a lot of calories to digest, and sits heavy. The high protein coverage is mostly in-depth analysis of economic and political matters. Watch out though, a lot of opinion can be pretty fatty and greasy — and the half-cooked stuff can make you seriously sick.
Here are a couple of analogies to get things started (I want to add some but have to go to work now):
Tori Stafford — bananas: a lot of vitamins and fibre, and there’s always a ton of it, but it can be hard to find coverage that isn’t either green and starchy or brown and mushy.
Krugman vs. Ferguson — liver and onions: an acquired taste, puts hair on your chest
