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We're getting too distracted

For some reason, our country tends to gravitate toward ridiculous drama, pulling our attention away from topics we should be focusing on. We focus on articles that highlight the spectacle currently on display in our administration; we read about President Donald Trump and other politicians denouncing NFL players for kneeling in protest instead of reading about the growing nuclear threat in North Korea. [caption id="attachment_17260" align="aligncenter" width="838"] The Setonian Logo[/caption] We read articles that focus solely on tweets that Trump used to respond to the mayor of San Juan’s accusations instead of articles that describe the current humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico caused by Hurricane Maria. Most recently, we’ve been reading articles about what Trump did or did not say to the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson – whose death has been politicized by Democrats and Republicans – instead of articles that explain what happened in Niger, why it was able to happen and how it will be prevented from ever happening again. Whether you agree with conservatives or liberals, you have to admit that all of this flashy news and these pathetic back-and-forth exchanges between politicians are getting in the way of the important information we should be paying attention to. The media is partially to blame for this because it highlights these events, which distracts the reader from actual stories. However, media organizations are businesses and businesses need to make money to survive. Many times media organizations want to write more on certain topics, but can’t because they know more articles won’t be widely read by readers – not enough popularity is basically the death of a story. People simultaneously complain about the media distracting readers with sensationalized stories, yet choose not to read the important articles. This hypocrisy has created a downward spiral and causes the media to continue to pump out clickbait articles instead of the important ones. We need to do more research – we need to think clearly and try to decide what really matters in a situation. Do we care more about a set of tweets or do we care about possible nuclear warfare, the desolation of an entire country caused by a hurricane and the missteps that lead to four soldiers’ deaths in Niger? The media is in some ways financially bound to cover certain stories only for as long as the audience cares. It’s about time audiences start caring about the important things happening in the world, not the circus act that’s taking up all the attention. The Voice is intended to best represent the collective opinion of The Setonian’s Editorial Board. It is written by The Setonian’s Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor.

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