Melody Kramer




People Who Are Not In News Comment on The News In Some Way: Meet John from Kansas City

12 Dec 2014 by melodyjoykramer




John Hart is a millennial who lives in Kansas City and doesn’t work in news. In his words, “[My] biggest hobbies include camping (when possible), reading books and having my heart broken by KC sports teams.” John was kind enough to answer some questions for me about his news consumption.

If you’d like to see others in the series, click here. If you don’t work in news, live outside of DC/NYC, and would like to be interviewed, let me know!

1. How do you get your news?

I surf Twitter in the morning while eating breakfast, listen to NPR on my way to work, and read The New York Times and Wall Street Journal online during lunches. And if some world event or story is really interesting me I will hunt down a foreign newspapers website and read their articles and just use the Google Translate option. I just don’t watch news on the TV — that seems to be the media’s chosen medium for scare tactics.

2. Please send me a gif or video that captures your attention span.

If something doesn’t interest me in the slightest, than I really have no attention at all and just jump to the next thing, I definitely find myself scanning an article and being like wow you tricked me with that headline and I really don’t care about this story and just moving on. So here is my gif:
basketball gif

3. How do you take your coffee?

Blacker than a moonless midnight.

4. Who’s doing it right in news?

I’d have to say Marketplace. I consume a lot of news, but this is the one source where I don’t change the station or click to the next article. Stories are interesting and the perfect length and [they] can make some dull stuff fascinating. They are giving the people what they want.

5. What’s the first news event that you remember?

I would have been 6 or 7, and I don’t remember the specifics, but the big hoopla about President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky stands out as the first news story I remember. Did I know the details, no. Did I know that Bill had done messed up? Yep.

6. What was the best thing that happened to you this week?

Sturgill Simpson concert.

7. What do you absolutely hate about the news?

I’d say the biggest thing I hate is the dramatization. Instead of just saying it is winter and it can get cold, we have things like the Polar Vortex. The dramatization doesn’t just stick to weather patterns sadly. I also hate that newspapers like the WSJ and NYT play into the stereotypes we have created for Republicans and Democrats. This really comes out in the opinions columns, but that’s another conversation.

8. Which Kansas City are you from? I get confused.

From the Kansas side, living on the Missouri side now. Fair question!


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