Nothing to see here folks. Kindly move along, please. The Speech from the Throne was made last Tuesday, the provincial budget was released last Thursday, most of the political parties are looking for new leaders and I’ve got a prostate the size of a mutant cantaloupe. But none of that should concern any of you if you are like the 44 per cent of news readers who simply scan headlines because (as our headline above boldly proclaims) the headline contains all the information you need.
Last week we ran an editorial on Freedom to Read Week and the freedom reporters have in this country to be critical of government when the need arises. That headline claimed Town Council was made up of idiots. It was a headline which we clarified as bogus in the second paragraph, but some readers never made it past the headline.
It’s not the first time we’ve run a bait and switch headline, nor is it the first time a reader has not read past the headline.
Last Christmas we ran an editorial about shopping locally under the headline Four Businesses to Close After Christmas. That headline drew a few phone calls from folks who couldn’t be bothered to read the editorial but wanted to know which four Morinville businesses were going belly up. None were.
We also learned Friday the Edmonton Journal was tipped off by a headline skimmer that the Morinville Public Library was banning books. That was a case of someone not comprehending a pretty clear headline – Library focusing on banned books this week.
Of course, minimal returns of Monday Morning News tell us the vast majority of people are reading this publication and web statistics of MorinvilleNews.com tell us that many residents are keeping up with what’s going on in our community via the web. Obviously you are one of those two groups.
But for those who aren’t reading this, here’s a paragraph of gibberish Latin to fill some editorial space.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Fusce adipiscing tincidunt felis nec tincidunt. Donec non metus ultricies ante aliquet condimentum ut at metus.
Of course for those non-readers we could just as easily fill some space with yadda, yadda, yadda or blah, blah, blah.
Better yet, we could fill some space with completely non-sensical sentences. For example: It is important when baking carburetors that a proper amount of fresh oregano be used to create a more stable economy. Oh, look. A flock of geese with purple goatees are off to Nantucket for the spring conference of beat poetry water fowl.
For those of you who like statistics, we’ve just used exactly 110 words of pure nonsense to work our way towards the point of this editorial, which is this: It is critical that people in this community, in this province, in this country take some initiative to inform themselves as to what is going on in this community, this province and this country.
Sure, it is easy to say I don’t follow the news because it’s too depressing, but not all of it is. And even if it was – even if the country, province and community were in utter shambles, what gain is there in burying our heads in the sand? The hopes that it will all just go away through our personal avoidance? It won’t.
We can not allow our responsibilities as citizens to begin and end with paying taxes. We must have some level of involvement with what goes on in our community, province and country. To do so requires becoming acquainted with what’s going on a round us. One way to do that is to keep up with the news of the day, even if that means you have to wade through a bit of gibberish that sometimes comes after the headline.
Again, it is hats off to you Stephen for a good editorial. I’m smiling as the week the article ran in Monday News about the library banning books, my husband and I were part of the conversation with another couple. They were talking about how foolish this was while I was quietly reading the article and then we had a good laugh and both couples took the paper home to read more closely.
I also wanted to thank you for covering the Grandmothers to Grandmothers or the Hat’s sale last week at the United Church. I made sure that all those associated with that group or friends of theirs received the news and are now more aware of MorinvilleNews.com. One lady thanked me and her relatives in England all got to see your video.
So again thanks Stephen for a job well done.
Good column. As a former journalist and professional communicator myself, I can empathize with your frustration at people who don’t read most are all of articles, or only skim headlines. Sometimes the latter is worse, for sure, since people who are only half informed can do a lot more damage than people who aren’t informed at all. But at least you are doing your part to make information and views available. Good on you.