By Dennis Lyons
CNHI News
Last month, I started binge-watching an old TV show some might remember called “Person of Interest.”
It ran on CBS from 2011 to 2016 and told the ongoing story of an oddball, wealthy computer genius who developed a program that could predict acts of terror or violence and identify the people planning them and their potential victims. The idea, of course, was to stop the bad people from hurting the good ones.
The show gave me my first introduction to Artificial Intelligence. I must admit I didn’t give AI much thought at the time. It seemed like TV science fiction.
Who knew?
I’m not here to delve into AI today but to address the fatigue we can encounter when we are hit with too much information about the same thing.
I got through the show’s first two seasons before deciding I needed to get away from it. I’ll probably get back to it eventually, but 45 episodes are enough for now.
A much more concerning bout of fatigue that appears to be hitting people nationwide involves news, especially the reporting about the 2024 presidential race.
A nationwide poll, commissioned by the Medill School at Northwestern University and conducted in May, studied the idea of news fatigue and the resulting news avoidance among American adults.
According to the summary of the poll I found on the Poynter Institute website, 48.8% of those surveyed agreed or strongly agreed with the statement, “I’m tired of receiving and processing news about the 2024 presidential election.” Just 21.8% disagreed or strongly disagreed, and 28.2% responded, “Neither.”
Older adults, the poll found, had the biggest issue with news fatigue — 54.3% of the 60-plus demographic agreed they had it, compared to 44.5% of ages 30-44 and 47.4% of ages 18-29.
The poll also found that people who identified themselves as conservative reported the lowest level of being tired of election news (41.7%). Moderates reported the highest level (53.6%) and liberals (49.5%).
I get it. Regardless of your age, gender, or political persuasion, there’s already been a lot reported on this election, and it’s not going to slow down anytime soon.
As an editor who works with many small, community newspapers, local news and information appropriately dominate our content. We’re not publishing news about the national election at anywhere near the volume of CNN, Fox, the traditional national TV networks or the big newspaper outlets.
Nevertheless, we must provide substantial election coverage. It’s too important to downplay. That’s especially true in states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota, and others where we have newspapers, and election results will likely be extremely important.
We need to — and consistently try to — cut through the noise and give you accurate, fair news about the issues in this campaign without going overboard.
It’s easy and even understandable that you might choose to tune out, at least some of the time. We all have lives to be led that, at least on the surface, seem to have little to do with this election.
But with the huge division in this country and the massive differences among the candidates, there’s no question that this election is big news — nationally and locally.
How the next four years play out in places like Sunbury, Pennsylvania; Traverse City, Michigan; Anderson, Indiana; Norman, Oklahoma and so many other places where we work to serve readers will depend in no small part on the November results and our response to them. As we’ve already been doing, we’re going to work hard between now and November to keep our reporting fair and accurate and with as much local and statewide focus as we can.
I urge you to stay with us. We’ll strive to make it worthwhile.
Dennis Lyons is Vice President and National Editor for CNHI.