LISTENING TO THE NEWS NEURO-SEMANTICALLY

When it comes to the news— How well can you listen to it? Can you “just listen” to it, process the information, test it with critical thinking skills, and then choose how to respond to it? Or does the news induce you into negative states? Perhaps stress, perhaps feeling upset or frustrated, or depressed and sad, or angry?

For years I have been meeting lots of people who tell me that they “just cannot watch the news.” When I explore with them the difficulty of watching, they tell me that it puts them into negative states, it “ruins their day,” or if they watch, they will not be able to sleep well at night. I often have commented that “it is just information” and that “much of it is distorted,” yet that doesn’t seem to make any difference. So that has led me to ask several questions about watching the news: How is it that a person can watch the news and be induced into strong negative states? What’s going on with a person that in watching the news, he or she processes things in such a way that it can “ruin a day” or disturb sleep at night? How is it that other persons can watch the news and not be so induced? What states do others access in watching the news so that they can learn from it and not be seduced into a particular world-view? What are some of the resources in Neuro-Semantics that can empower a person to watch the news neuro-semantically?

Information Processing NLP was the first Communication Model to put front and center the different representational systems as our “languages of the mind” by we process information. Some do it visually as they create and hold images in their minds, others do it auditorially as they hear and repeat words and voices in their minds, and yet others do it primarily kinesthetically as they sense and feel movement and senses in their minds. While we all have and use all of these systems, some primarily use one or two of these systems and others are consciously focused primarily on one or two of them. They are available to everyone and weakness in any system can be trained.

In NLP we also discern whether a person does this from first, second, or third perceptual position. This distinction refers to whether we process information as it were from our own eyes, from seeing the world from the eyes of the other person, or from stepping aside and seeing it from a third perspective. To process information from your own eyes and ears and skin means you are experiencing it as if you are in it. You have stepped in and so are associated into the experience. You could also do this from second position, as if you were in that person’s body and seeing, hearing, and feeling things associatedly from that place. If, however, you step out of the experience then you are observing it from another point-of-view. You could step back into neutrality, learning, witnessing, joy, seriousness, playfulness, etc. The range of choices is nearly infinite.

So how do you want to be able to listen to the news? Why not step back into a witnessing, learning, and questioning state so that you can listen to understand. Once you understand then you can test and evaluate with good critical thinking skills (begin by using the Meta-Model questions for this). Then you can choose what information, and when, to step into a story and experience.

Consider the Nature of “The News” Here is something equally important. Get acquainted with what the news is here in the 21st century, who creates it, the biases the creators operate from, and their intentions. The News is by no means pure information— unbiased and without filters. Created by human being with intentions, assumptions, biases, agendas and created to fulfill a purpose for a given business, the news is highly prejudicial. What is the psychology of the News?

Sensational. What makes “news” is what is not normal. It is what is out-of-the-norm and so what is sensational. In fact, the more sensational, the better. If something blew up, if a train derailed and tore through a house or a city, if an accident occurred, these are sensational things. Better yet, if a war starts— now “That’s news!” Negative. As negative emotions (fear, anger, sadness, frustration, grief, etc.) are much more compelling and sensational than positive emotions (delight, calm, joy, learning, compassion, passion, relaxation, etc.), so it is bad news that sells much more than good news. Bad news gets our attention as it shouts that there’s a problem that may be threatening me. If someone shots a gun and wounds, that’s much more exciting news, than if someone stabs people with a knife. Right now. News is news only when it is “new.” As soon as it is old (“That’s old news; that was in yesterday’s newspaper”), it is no longer interesting. This gives the news a very short focus—hence the short-term vision of the news. Things that develop over time (which is most things) don’t seem to fit the 24/7 news cycle in this century. In reporting the news reporters like to have an opening and closing to the story. The Rich, the Famous, the Celebrities. News also seems to be primarily focused on those who are living the life that we want—those at the top of the social ladder. While “the man on the street” gets some coverage from time to time, it is mostly focused on those who are presented as our societal heros—the glamorous, the wealthy, sports and movie stars, etc. For Profit. News today is a business. Whether it is newspapers, magazines, TV, cable news, blogs, online news, and so on—the news is offered as a commodity on the market and as such needs people who will buy. Accordingly, networks and publishers of news choose their market and deliver the news to those with a certain bias— conservative, liberal, radical. So part of critical thinking has to be considering the source. What biases may be behind selecting this story, presenting it as they do, what agenda could this be serving?

Watch it— Reflect Upon It — Learn from It None of us can swallow the news whole, not as it is given to us, not in this century. To do so is unwise. Today we have to filter it. We have to test it— test its validity, its reality, its source. As a verse from the Bible says, “Test (prove) all things; hold fast to that which is good.” (I Thessalonians 5:21). We have to balance views to hear both or multiple sides so as to expose assumptive frames of the authors and to chase out the biases used in creating the news.