On the BBC news website they have a page called “on this day”, where you select a date and then you get to see the top article for that date throughout some years.
I find this very interesting. Have always been interested in seeing patterns in everything. Before I started this online journal, I had an offline (analog) journal. Since an analog is flat and not dynamic, every time I was about to start a new year, I wrote a summary of previous years in small type on top of each date. This actually only took a few hours. And I did find some patterns…
On the BBCs “on this day” website I entered my date of birth – 12 october, and got: 2 bombs a failure and a murder charge.
2000: Suicide bombers attack USS Cole
At least six American sailors die in what’s thought to have been a suicide bomb attack on a US Navy destroyer in Yemen.2002: Dozens killed in Bali nightclub explosion
Reports from the Indonesian holiday island of Bali say more than 50 people have been killed in two explosions.1986: Reykjavik summit ends in failure
Superpower talks collapse after Presidents Reagan and Gorbachev fail to agree on Star Wars.1978: Sex Pistol Vicious on murder charge
British punk rocker Sid Vicious is arrested on suspicion of murder after his girlfriend’s body is found in their New York hotel room.
Not maybe what you would like your birthday to be like. But… again, I bet if you enter your birthday you will get similar result. News don’t seem to be about spreading and talking about good “stuff”. It’s about announcing terror, tragedy. Making news and selling papers. Making news and sell advertising.
Seriously, even dictionaries seem to be a bit confused what the word ‘news’ stands for.
news |n(y)oÅ?z|
noun
newly received or noteworthy information, esp. about recent or important events : I’ve got some good news for you.
• ( the news) a broadcast or published report of news : he was back in the news again.
• ( news to) informal information not previously known to someone : this was hardly news to her.
• a person or thing considered interesting enough to be reported in the news : Chanel became the hottest news in fashion.PHRASES
make news become a story in the news : stolen babies make news.
no news is good news proverb without information to the contrary you can assume that all is well.ORIGIN late Middle English : plural of new , translating Old French noveles or medieval Latin nova ‘new things.’
You find that
newly received or noteworthy information, esp. about recent or important events : I’ve got some good news for you.
and then
PHRASES
make news become a story in the news : stolen babies make news.
no news is good news proverb without information to the contrary you can assume that all is well.
What I find interesting is how society defines a word and then, slowly over time, alters it’s definition so that what the word stood for has changed.
In the song ‘The News’ Jack Johnson sings:
Why don’t the newscasters cry when they read about people who die
At least they could be decent enough to put just a tear in their eyes
I guess Jack, that would be to emotional very ‘unprofessional’…