52) News Fatigue

It's inescapable. Every day we are bombarded with news stories on the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. And rightly so - as the most gargantuan spill in US history, it deserves it's time in the spotlight. Environmental groups, fisherman, the government, everyone (you and me) - we are all furious. As oil continues to gush into the ocean, damaging a yet-to-be-determined amount of wildlife, people and landscape, we demand answers, solutions and swift justice for the guilty party.

But as the days pass, and the oil has yet to be contained (much less cleaned up), we begin to experience news fatigue. How many videos of oil pluming from that pipe can we watch, how many pictures of oil-covered animals can we see, and how many articles about the current state of the Gulf can we read until we begin to glaze over? And it's a fine line. Too little news would be a gross oversight, but too much news for too long can lead to apathy and acclimation. We get used to the status quo of a seemingly insurmountable spill.

This is not a suggestion for the media to start filing out of the Gulf Coast. It's important that this event is documented, broadcast, and archived, so that we might learn something from it. But with reports that total clean up could take months, and full restoration of the Gulf Coast could take years, we will have to steel ourselves against the onset of news fatigue.