Midterm essay

The quote “Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspaper is like trying to tell time by watching the second hand of a clock.” Said by Ben Hecht can easily be agreed with. Many people read the newspaper and get confused by the lack of information about the world, seeing as how all they really see are things that they don’t really care for or things that are just self promoted. Yellow journalism is showed all over newspaper, one small article being more noticeable than an article about a flood in a town.

            This feeling about newspapers can compare to the second hand of a clock because you don’t see any difference for a long amount of time. If you’re watching the second hand expecting a quick change, you’re out of luck. Though of course, the second hand moves every hour and a newspaper takes much longer than that. If you’re watching the small hand you at least expect the next big change. It’s better to watch the news rather than read a newspaper.

            Many people read newspaper expecting to know the newest news for that day, but get sucked into an article completely opposite of what they were expecting. You will of course find some news in a newspaper, but not until a couple pages in or so. People write newspapers wanting attention from the front page, completely capturing you to continue reading or buying that newspaper. They could care less if you want it for the news. Even the front page of a newspaper has a yellow journalism based story, grabbing your attention to make you look through the entire newspaper. Page after page sucking you in until you finally decide to continue that newspaper, and take it home, even if you will just throw it out the next day.

            These are the reasons why people can easily believe the quote “Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspaper is like trying to tell time by watching the second hand of a clock.” Said by Ben Hecht rather than someone saying that newspaper constantly has the newest stories. Newspapers are very slow compared to a different source you can get to.