Other Mysteries

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Observations on Life or Something to Offend Everyone

The Media: Those Wise Men and Women

I've noticed that people that consider themselves creative, can't read. Oh, they recognize the words and their meaning but they don't look at how the words are put together to express a statement or position. They are more likely to read a thought generated through an internal association than that actually expressed. That is, they "read between the lines" seeing content not present on the page, or in this case, the screen. It's the creative process running amok.

Engineers, in contrast, are often considered unimaginative (like we believe that!) and generally read very slowly. By necessity, they read (and write) one word at a time, or symbol (letter equivalent) by symbol. They are taught to examine content in detail with a critical eye looking for errors in assumptions and logic. Differences in technical opinions lead to discussion with a drive for the truth. Differences must be resolved to each participant's satisfaction, even if the two opinions never converge. In my experience they rarely lead to hot exchanges and/or bad feelings. That's not to say the discussions can not be competitive...make that highly competitive.

So one might wonder if the world should be divided between engineers and others or is this a "right" brain vs. "left" brain thing?

The Media: Those Wise Men and Women that Prioritize What Information We Need

My family lives in what can generally be described as a quiet bedroom community. It occasionally suffers some burglary and vandalism problems but little violent crime. About a decade ago, during a period of less than 10 days, and within 3 miles of my house, a teenage girl was sexually assaulted and murdered, a woman claimed to be kidnapped and raped (later turned out to be a "he said, she said" conflict), and third woman murdered during daylight on the side of a major street. With a wife and young daughter sharing my home and life, I was greatly concerned about the safety of my family.

Anxious for crime wave and hopefully crime solving announcements, I rapidly flipped back and forth between the morning news being provided on the local Baltimore TV stations. What information was I able to gather quickly to sooth or accelerate my increasing concern? That which is most important, according to our local media. Much had to do with the Baltimore Orioles, which of course, were the center of lead stories on station after station. On one newscast, almost as an after thought, there was some minimal coverage of our violent crime spree. That is it existed and that local residents were showing concern.

Well, times change. Recently my wife and I went out to eat. Guess whose idea that was. We had chicken and turkey respectively. That evening we both felt ill. The story leaders for the evening news were: "Oriole Manager Resigns" and "Salmonella Sweeps Maryland; 1 (to 3 depending on station) dead!" So, rapidly flipping between stations to see if we were likely to die, I learned a great deal about the conflict the manager had with the team owner, what the people on the street thought about the resignation, and was privy to insight based on endless related discussions...and, oh yes, people were dying of salmonella but no more time tonight. Next the weather. The lead story in the Morning Baltimore Sun was about the resignation. The Salmonella story actually made the front page, but didn't provide much useful information. Later that same day, I learned from the TV news that the poisoning was related to a specific event that I hadn't attended and involved a variety of food I can't image eating. I guess the media felt that a little stress testing was good for me and, no harm done, since they knew what was important.