The News, the Product, and Its Drawbacks

Many of us are now aware, more than ever, perhaps in these ast few short years, that the news is not just news in the classical sense. It is a product we purchase, sometimes with our dollars, but always, and most significantly, with a more limited and valuable resource, our attention. Let me start with four drawbacks, and then we'll spend the rest of the time on the offerings. The whole industry of daily news, including now the volunteer voices joining the stream without pay through social media, competes for limited human attention. A second drawback is that, in an effort to fill our daily and instantaneous appetites, the news gravitates to the most curious and fascinating story