Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

News is happening when there is a disconnect in the pattern A leads to B.

Consider this: A leads to B.

So, find A, and when it leads to something other than B, you have a news story.

For example, more money spent on schools leads to better student performance. When it doesn’t, we have a news story. We have irrational behavior and, for some reason, we think that to be unusual and, hence, a news story.

(It seems to me that irrational behavior occurs so often that we would think it normal and not newsworthy, but that is just me.)

At least the behavior is irrational when viewed from the perspective of “we are trying to lead to better student performance.” If what we are trying to lead to is “more jobs for people who really don’t do anything but accept a paycheck,” we have rational behavior.

Perhaps defining B (the leading to thing) is the key or something like that.