In the news business, when a lot of citizens are asked the same question, it’s called a “man on the street.” Late night TV hosts like to stun us with bits where seemingly common knowledge is not that common after all. Jay Leno once asked people on San Antonio’s Riverwalk to name someone who fought in the Alamo. The jaw-dropping ignorance made us laugh and cringe (and some teachers cry). Most recently, a late-night crew asked individuals how they were voting AFTER the election. In other words, the folks were not aware that election day had passed.
What we have here is a failure to educate the next generation in the value and practice of news literacy. Why would they need to worry about boring news? Especially local news. Could there be anything less interesting than what grandpa is doing with government money?
Really it’s all of us though. We’re hand-fed the news we care about by our “feeds” or broadcast channels. With so much information available, our filters and choices keep us sane, but also separated from a common ground.
