UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — In today’s media climate, it’s just as easy to consume too much news as it is to avoid it entirely. But a healthy democracy requires informed citizens who can consume news without getting caught up in the noise on social media, cable news and other platforms. The "Democracy Works" podcast opens its spring 2023 season with a discussion on how to create a balanced media diet.
The episode features Matt Jordan and Leah Dajches, hosts of the "News Over Noise" podcast. Jordan is professor of media studies and Dajches is a postdoctoral researcher, both in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications.
Dajches said she often avoided the news because it made her feel helpless and overwhelmed.
“My journey has been learning to understand how we really define news and how I can think about it in a kind of more curated, healthy way so that I can be an informed, engaged citizen, but not lose my mind because of all the noise,” Dajeches said.
Given the decline of local news, growth of news consumption on social media and other structural changes to the media over the past 20 years, Jordan said it’s not surprising to hear that people are either consuming too much news or very little at all.
“News should be about connecting people to the environments where they live and helping them manage what's changed, what hasn't changed, and all the things that we need to make sense of the world. And increasingly, that's not being done,” Jordan said. “So what's filling that void is a kind of nationalized spectacle where politics becomes a zero-sum game between Republicans and Democrats. And so for a lot of people who are news junkies, that's the melodrama that they're tied to."
On the idea of balance, Dajches said that talking to people is key to understanding what emotions might be behind their news consumption, or lack thereof.
“And I think when you're wanting to talk to someone, whether they're a news avoider or a news junkie, I think it's important try and find out why they’re doing what they’re doing so you can think about how to introduce them to healthier ways to potentially consume the news."
"Democracy Works" is a production of the McCourtney Institute for Democracy and "News Over Noise" is a production of the News Literacy Initiative. Both podcasts are produced in collaboration with WPSU. Listen to "Democracy Works" at democracyworkspodcast.com and "News Over Noise" at newsliteracy.psu.edu/podcasts.