Extra! Extra! Have you read all about it?

The lede, the lead in, the teaser - whatever your preferred terminology; it's the string of words announcing the news article just posted/published by your media outlet of choice. Its sole purpose is to entice the reader or viewer to sit up and take notice.  It's meant to make you want to pick up the newspaper and read the details.  It prevents you from changing the channel during the commercial break so you can find out what happened.  Has this journalistic tradition been lost on  the “I want it now” generation?

In my opinion, one of the best innovations brought on by the Internet and social media has been the ability for the average consumer of news to post their commentary online.  It has moved the discussion of news events beyond the water cooler.  It has opened up the possibility of having frank and open discussions with people of varying opinions on a global scale. Media outlets will even post a quote or significant passage from the article preceding the link. However, this may have only perpetuated a growing problem. Those on the never ending quest for immediate gratification mistakenly believe they have full knowledge of the subject matter and are ready to move on to the next item or, worse yet, post their comments online.

Imagine a typical morning.  You are scrolling through your news feed and an article peaks your interest.  You open the link, read the full text and proceed back to the original social media site to the comments section. Before you enter your comments, you scan through the previous commentary.  How many times have you noticed that the previous commentators obviously did not bother to read beyond the headline and the introductory paragraph?  It has become more than a passing thing of late.   

Not only does it make the previous poster(s) look foolish but it turns those of us who did read the entire article into the Internet police.  We find ourselves spending more time correcting their misinterpretation of the facts in the article than being able to offer our own opinions on the piece in question.  More often than not it becomes a war of words rather than a peaceful discourse of ideas and opinion.

There is nothing wrong with people having differing opinions and being able to discuss them in a rational and educated manner.  That is not the purpose of this post.  I always look forward to a lively debate.  However, I expect my opponent to have read the full context of the article beforehand.  How they interpret what they read is subjective; but at least I will know we are starting on an even playing field.