There is there a universal need to share and receive news.
We like to say that the appetite for news is in our DNA, as we look to news to:
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Alert Us
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Divert Us
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Connect Us
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We rely on news that Alerts Us:
News includes information that alerts us to dangers or opportunities ahead, as many of us learned when Superstorm Sandy AND a full moon combined to knock out power to millions of people in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut…or in 2014, when the Polar Vortex storms cancelled thousands of flights and destroyed crops.
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Diverts:
We don’t read political news and cops and crime news all the time. We also can’t resist reading about celebrities, or following news that amuses us.
Stories that amuse and entertain us are also news. Don’t be embarassed to admit you’re an ESPN addict, a TMZ fan…or a Page Six Devotee. The fact is, news is often a form of entertainment.
Trust us, it’s really nothing new.
Example: The Roman Emperor Cicero ordered news about Rome delivered to him by messenger when he was away. He griped that the news in these letters was a lot of tittle-tattle and gossip: which gladiator was paired off with which…who was on trial for what scandalous or embarrassing crime…what leak about the Emperor was making the rounds.
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It connects us:
As did stories told around the campfire or in the darkness of grass huts at the dawn of human history, some news stories connect us. The telling and re-telling of them. The discussion of them…That’s deep in our DNA. Human Interest stories, like the story of the death of a beloved public figure, connect us in our shared history and studying the story of another person’s life helps us rehearse how we’ll rise to the occasion when life’s inevitable losses hit us.
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