My friend shared how she prefers news articles and other informational pieces to tell her quickly what she needs to know. She’s not willing to invest much time to read, nor do the work to understand.
“Get to the point without a lot of fluff, and show me in a visual if you can, that’s even better,” she said, noting she really likes when the source even tells her how to think about the situation.
My friend’s words intrigued me. I’m not sure how widespread the concept of being spoon fed at the level she described is, but I’m confident of the decreasing attention span in general.
Watching trends in newspaper page layouts from what once included long, detailed articles to much shorter pieces with lots of images provides one example.
Tempting to only skim headlines
Many of us lead busy lives, like my friend who is in her 40s, and it certainly is tempting to only skim headlines, scroll social media and listen to sound bites.
That’s one reason we work hard to ensure our headlines are clear, fact-based and free of exaggerated claims. If you only have time to skim, then we want you to know as much as possible — even from those few words.
In fact, we encourage those whose schedules don’t allow them to officially read The Alabama Baptist to at the very least flip through the paper merely reading the headlines. Another option is to scroll through our brief Highlights email newsletter, which only takes a few seconds.
Finding the God moments
Aside from debating how we all get our news and to what level we should engage, a concern on my heart is the number of people missing the opportunity to see how God is working through His people. A simple perusing of the stories shared by TAB provides an easy way to find Him.
It does require reading beyond the headlines, however.
One of our loyal readers suggested we showcase more blatantly the God moment in our stories. People are hungry for those kinds of glimpses, he said, but they are likely reading right over the very thing they desperately need.
As we’ve thought through his suggestion, we’ve landed with a starting point I hope you will help us develop. It’s the launch of a new column — “I See Jesus: Where God is Working, Christ is Shining and the Holy Spirit is Moving” — and it’s coming soon.
Join us in the effort
We’ll work to highlight these moments in the stories we are covering if you’ll share the God moments you see happening all around you on any given day.
A quick note in the mail, an email or a phone call (800-803-5201) all work as ways to share, and don’t worry about needing to write it a certain way. We’ll take care of polishing the final version; we only need you to be willing to testify.
Staff updates at The Alabama Baptist
With the new year came a few changes regarding staffing at The Alabama Baptist, and we wanted to keep you in the loop.
Carrie Brown McWhorter has shifted from content editor to special projects editor. She served in the content editor role full time for five years and filled a variety of part-time and correspondent-type positions for more than 20 years prior to that.
While Carrie is transitioning back to a part-time role, we are thrilled you’ll still feel her presence on the pages and in the digital platforms of The Alabama Baptist.
Dianna Cagle continues full time with TAB but is now special assistant to the editor. She previously served as production manager of the print edition. While her new role will be more varied from day to day, she also will cover stories and help with production efforts from time to time.
And not a change, but just a note that Jan. 1 marked my 5th anniversary as editor-in-chief and my 28th anniversary overall with TAB. Now to head toward that 30-year mark and beyond. I’m excited to see what God is going to do these next few years.
Thank you for caring so well for our staff. We love and appreciate you.
—Jennifer Davis Rash
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