I'm planning on doing some work with my classes this week centred around science in the news, in an attempt to convince students that classroom science isn't completely irrelevant. I want my students to find an interest somewhere but also think about how reliable the science we read or hear in the media actually is. The idea stemmed from an off the cuff discussion last Friday afternoon about how conspiracy theories and science news comes about. We were talking about landing on the moon in particular, and if carrots could really cause cancer.

As I was writing down some discussion points, it made me think of the news on a much broader scale and sent me on a thought tangent which lead me here. News is everywhere, defined as "new or noteworthy information about recent or important events". Nice and vague, means that we can make pretty much anything 'news' depending on who we're talking to. The news you read about depends on what radio station you listen to, your bookmarked websites, the tv channel you prefer to have on during dinner or the very newspaper you choose to buy, if any. You probably wouldn't be surprised at how many don't know what's going on in Syria or Egypt or North Korea but are emotionally connected to celebrity twitterers and Heat magazine. And some are very knowledgeable about what is going on miles away but are ignorant of the people who are shaping our society and influencing it's public, regardless of how it came to be.

But it doesn't really matter what you think 'news' is, the principles are the same as those my students will be thinking about. Any article we read or hear is edited down to a specific word count and written in a way to provoke reaction. This means 'boring' elements are left out, details are embellished and stories twisted to suit opinions; either that of a particular organisation or what is thought to be the views of the majority. (Note to readers: we will take a much more diplomatic approach to the subject in the classroom, but my personal blog is no place for diplomacy)

This isn't me communicating a new found anti-news stance or anything similar. I'm just growing tired of hearing people talking about what they heard in the 'news' and adopting it as fact. Hearing things that seem inaccurate and judgemental. It's like we always need somebody to blame when sometimes there isn't anyone. Or we always need somebody to gossip about, forgetting that that usually means somebody is hurting or in trouble. And, this is the worst one, it's like we always need to be complaining about something, which breeds negativity and it's infectious.

Just my opinion.