I thought, before I went away, that I would miss the 24 hour news culture that we have in the west: waking up to the Today Program on Radio 4; keeping an eye on the BBC news feed while at work; watching the 10 o'clock news before bed. But I haven't really missed it at all.
Firstly my experience living in a developing country showed me how selective the western media is... life & death going unreported because it is too far away, geographically & (maybe more significantly) politically.
You also come to realise, when you don't have your news drip fed to you, that most news is no news... look back over a weeks headlines & what has really happened of significance? Or, in my case, look back over a year of missed news & has anything really happened at all? A new Big Brother winner & the people he/she has slept with? A flood in the north of England which did not kill anyone or destroy anythink irrapairably? A new prime minister, an event that was known so far in advance that it almost seems ironic to call its eventual advent news.
At the moment Australian news is dominated by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. World leaders are converging on Sydney & the ensuing security lockdowns & public protests are playing havoc with my travel plans! So once again I am keeping an eye on the news, & I guess that's the nub of it. News is what is important to you - news of friends & family; news of filmstars or celebs; news of third world countries in crisis - & what is important to you constantly changes. And what is important to me right now is that Bush buggers off out of Australia & lets me enjoy the final weeks of my holiday in peace!
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