on the hour

There's news everywhere all the time. At the moment it's 30-40% economy-themed stories; factories and shops closing, unemployment, bank bailouts, political arguments about the 'right' approach. Radio news every hour, analysis inbetween, 24-hour news on TV, any amount of it on the interweb, all for the choosing - and I do. For me there's a fine line between finding it compelling and finding it compulsive, but there's something else. It's a culture's stream of consciousness, the prevailing wind of preoccupations and anxieties masquerading as information. In New Zealand the news was about injustice, race, road death, crime and local celebrities. Here in Scotland it's about money, class, far-away places, hierarchies. I couldn't get enough of it to begin with; the wall of sound in front of the speakers, where in New Zealand I heard the news through a glass pressed against the wall, sifting through endless individuals bitten by dogs. It's a phase of course. I'm used to those, and already I'm getting bored of it. The interweb at least allows a view into the way different cultures report events; New York Times, al-jazeera, the Onion, Arts and Letters. I checked out the New Zealand 'Stuff' website for, well, stuff on the recession over there. Top of the headlines were John Key getting the plaster off his broken arm, and a dog dying.