Remapping the News of the World

Abstract

Henry David TH0REAU, the 19th century American philosopher, once said that he never read newspapers. The papers contained nothing but accounts of train wrecks, he claimed, and once you knew the theory of a train wreck, there was no reason to read repeatedly about recent occurrences. Thoreau - who invented civil disobedience and lived alone for a year at Waiden POND in Massachusetts - would find a familiar echo ofhis complaint today. Just about everyone com­plains about the preponderance of bad news and especially the coverage their group gets. Business and labor, young and old, Third World - especially the Third World - are convin­ced that they and their interests are largely ignored and, when covered at all, subjected to ridicule, cynicism, and abuse.