Social media mostly makes me feel profoundly alone. But, at its best it gives a glimmer of recognition. A few weeks ago, I threw a question out to Twitter, expecting maybe a few bites and a sense of having exposed myself for no return. Instead, the response was overwhelming. Hundreds of people wrote back with eye-rolls and exclamations.
“I know twitter is not a representative sample but I’m curious if you’re reading less more or less news since the election?” I asked. “I’m getting a general sense from readers/friends that people are over it?”
Despite the numbers, there was an alarming consistency to the replies and the gist of it was “no, I’m done, I’m out”.
Even people who wouldn’t be caught saying it publicly pulled me aside afterwards to say they were too heartbroken to tune in anymore. The response confirmed a hunch that had been brewing for some time: many readers have hit a ceiling.
People who previously lived and breathed politics and news reported a dramatic change. In the last few months, it seems progressives especially (though not exclusively) have been feeling helpless and lied to, and are taking a break for their own mental health. It was a good reminder that one of the best uses of social media is to grapple with the power of mainstream media.
But it’s not just Twitter reacts that have given me pause. The reason I sent the tweet had a commercial interest. As an editor of Crikey, I had watched the audience numbers plummet on political content after May 19. All news outlets experience ups and downs, but suddenly it seemed nobody wanted to read hot takes on Scott Morrison’s latest announcement or an explainer on what tax cuts really mean.
Research from Pew this year about American audiences found that in every major demographic group, there is more exhaustion than excitement over seeing political content on social media. Given our political discourse often feels like America Lite plus dingoes, I imagine we are not far behind. Not exactly heartening.
Every time I spoke to people about politics after the election there was a sense of frustration. Why had the polls been so wrong? It was Labor’s unlosable election wasn’t it? What did Clive Palmer’s huge yellow death tax ads have to do with it?
Workers in public interest fields from environment to the arts to immigration told me they had started to feel hope in the lead-up to the election — maybe their clients would get into the country, maybe they would get a pay raise for the first time in a decade, maybe climate change policy would shift beyond lumps of coal in parliament.
They weren’t all progressives. Many of the people who responded to me were swinging voters frustrated with single issues they thought would be addressed in the election — most often environmental management and climate change.
These people I’m speaking about haven’t suddenly been lobotimised. They will want to read regularly and use their minds. They still want to feel connected to the world. They’re just looking for something beyond the empty theatre of parliament to feel grounded by.
So what are people reading instead?
Some of them had stopped entirely. This might look like deleting Twitter, cancelling subscriptions to news outlets or switching from reading the ABC to looking at photos of food and babies on Instagram.
Another group were looking internationally. Fed up with our federal politics, they were seeking spectator sport elsewhere, perhaps where the stakes felt different.
The last group I think hold the most hope: they were turning to their communities. They were picking up the local free weekly paper for the first time in ages or joining neighbourhood Facebook groups. They were seeking a modicum of control and familiarity in a world they didn’t recognise.
A couple of weeks ago I was on a Melbourne Writers Festival panel about heartbreak and resolve in journalism. One of the panelists, and one this colony’s finest journalists Jack Latimore, talked about how much community informed his practice and newsroom policy at NITV. It makes their journalism slower and less sensational, he recognised, but the work was done with integrity and left people intact. We settlers have so much to learn from Indigenous writers and journalists.
We keep hearing that things are tough for the media. That may be true, but much much much more importantly, things are tough for readers. Where do they go with their burden of helplessness and dread? Who do they feel understands them?
At Crikey, for example, we’ve found when we write about climate change from an emotional perspective it’s really resonated. Reports on the constant threat of climate change? Not so much.
Perhaps there are more opportunities like that: to switch from hard to soft, abstract to personal, macro to micro. These are not gear shifts that are easy or achievable for all outlets or all stories, but they might be necessary ones if we are to survive and thrive.
Have you been reading less politics news since the election? Send your comments to boss@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name for publication.
I have not cut down on the number of news sites I visit but I have sharply reduced the amount of time I spend reading them. And I have resisted joining Facebook or Twitter. The msm has no-one to blame but themselves for the parlous state of their publications.
I went to the Canberra Writers Festival three weeks ago and came home with a pile of books. These books are mostly on politic topics but provide detailed background and analysis that the msm, in almost all its forms, does not provide. Many of the authors were clearly as despondent as I felt after the election.
But I am not sure that this is a new phenomenon. I lived overseas for almost a decade, returning home in November 2016. In December I attended an event at which Laurie Oakes and Michelle Grattan were interviewed. Both said that they could not recall a time when federal politics had been in such bad shape. The trend has continued its downward spiral.
You missed the main point: we have figured out that being aware of the issues is irrelevant now. The only thing that matters is the wall-to-wall propaganda served up by the MSM (including TV), and its ability to sway gullible uninformed/poorly informed voters who are lied to on a daily basis. This lying and propaganda deluge carries on 24/7 for the entire period between elections and ramps up to a crescendo just before the election. The AEC has declared it is powerless to prevent outright lying in election ads. With enough money any number of lies and half-truths can be broadcast and enough people can be swayed. This will ensure that nothing progressive can ever be achieved in the decades to come, unless some way of getting around this problem is found. So why bother?
Hear hear!
There is much less worth reading these days. the SMH used to be chock full of good articles and genuine news, now it’s opinion pieces from the likes of Amanda Vanstone, not the slightest hint of impartiality in them, or intellect either. Their business section still has some quality to it, but it used to be a solid read, now it’s a few articles.
Nothing from the Murdoch stable is worth reading. AFR has some moments, but just paying anything to a Murdoch publication just encourages them.
The Saturday Paper, the Monthly, Crikey are the only publications worth reading, Quarterly Essay when I get around to it, but like MJM I am reading even more books. Ask around the office how many people actually read books these days, it will amaze you how few do it, and how few read non-fiction genuinely brain enhancing tomes.
The election was sort of the last straw. The polls were wrong, the coverage was wrong, and the people of Australia, and Qld in particular, made their decisions about who to vote for not on the basis of meeting existential threats but whether or not they liked Bill Shorten, or whether Morrison and his Shire family were sort of relatable.
Analysis and rational decision making were never actually widely practiced, at any time in human history really, but we have really veered off the reservation. What exactly is the point of being informed, analytical, philosophical and/or ethical in a world that really isn’t capable of dealing with serious problems.
I think often these days of the probably apocryphal story of Nero fiddling while Rome burned. Here we are, quite literally burning, and fiddling.
Drug testing unemployed people, legislation to protect religious bigots, these are truly the big issues of the time. No wonder people are tuning out, it’s the rational response to an insane world.
Dogs B,
I definitely agree. All of your words have value, its a terrible situation and whats to be done about it? I feel quite depressed about it too. Although I am progressive and less inclined to follow Conservative thoughts and pathways an issue I considered most important/relavent was barely mentioned in the campaign, and this was the NBN. The emasculated, yet over priced, not fit for purpose, “solution” was built instead of what was originally proposed and only now are we starting to hear noises/complaints. And this Gladys Liu thing. makes my guts sick.
Dog’s Breakfast, you just wrote my mind.
I am in near despair since the federal election. I fear I will never again see good government in this country. I know Whitlam had flaws as do we all, but he was inspirational. I remember standing on a chair at Upwey high school and applauding during the 1972 election campaign. He had real policies, as did Labor this year, but the electorate is so dumbed down they were unable to see past their hip pockets. I also think that the 1975 coup most people see a Labor government as somehow illegitimate, which was reinforced by Tony Abbott as opposition leader. So now i read some of Crikey and the Saturday Paper, and watch SBS news – don’t bother with the ABC or social media. i read books and garden and try not to care, but it is difficult not to.
I, too, do not use social media but like others I am hardly bothering to read anything on politics. What a waste of time. They twist, they turn, they change their minds, they lie, they look at inconsequential issues and ignore the ones we want fixed. They want to drug test people on welfare. I want to IQ test potential parliamentarians before they can stand for election.
Sortition would probably give us better legislators than what the political class can offer.
I’ve found myself scrolling past anything to do with politics in Crikey, unless it’s from Rundle. After May 25 I was certainly one of those who unfollowed news sites on social media, where I now find myself enjoying many more cat memes and personal interest topics. Which mainly consists of cat memes.
As for TV news, I’ll watch SBS and eschew anything local. It’s refreshing not caring what happens in Australia anymore.
I for one have gone even further. After happening onto snippets of RT thanks to WTV in Perth I was so impressed that I bought a satellite dish to pull it in 24/7. More intelligent content in one day than in a month of Aussie sludge TV. ABC TV is a dead loss now, as with a few exceptions is Radio National. Much of it just mindless yapping now. SBS plays a balancing game, mixing obligatory propaganda whilst inserting occasional gems like Oliver Stone’s “Putin Interviews”. Kudos to them for that. But thankfully there’s the internet, where a feast of real journalism can be found by those who are really interested. Much of it international of course, but also local like Gumshoe News and John Menadue. Maybe Crikey should deal with them in order to produce a genuinely alternative online journal.