I'd always been a news junkie, always read lots of newspapers

“I’d always been a news junkie, always read lots of newspapers and watched the Sunday morning news shows on TV and felt strongly about issues of power, control, sexuality and race.” So declared Barbara Kruger, the artist whose words, images, and bold red banners cut like lightning through the fog of modern culture. In these words, she reveals not merely a habit of reading, but a lifelong hunger to confront the structures that shape our world. To be a “news junkie” is not simply to consume information—it is to feed the fire of awareness, to sharpen the eye that sees beneath appearances, and to prepare the voice that speaks truth to power.

The origin of this statement lies in Kruger’s artistic practice. She was a designer, a maker of images, but above all a questioner of the world. By devouring the news, she trained herself not only to know the surface of events but to sense the currents beneath them: who controls, who is silenced, who suffers, and who benefits. Her art became a mirror of this vigilance—bold words over stark images, asking viewers to wrestle with power, control, sexuality, and race, the very engines of human society. Her voice was born not in isolation, but in immersion in the world’s struggles.

The ancients, too, understood the need for such vigilance. In the agora of Athens, citizens gathered to hear news of wars, decrees, and debates. But it was not enough to listen; one had to think, to discern the truth beneath the rhetoric of leaders. Socrates himself walked the marketplace, questioning, probing, challenging, because he knew that to accept power unexamined was to invite tyranny. Barbara Kruger, like the philosophers of old, took the news not as idle chatter but as the raw material for truth-seeking.

History gives us clear examples of this path. Consider Frederick Douglass, who as an enslaved boy secretly read newspapers to learn of the wider world. What he found in those pages—the struggles of abolition, the hypocrisy of a nation claiming liberty while enslaving millions—fueled his determination to fight. By reading, by seeking knowledge, by staying vigilant, he gained the weapon of awareness. From there he became not only a freed man but a prophet of freedom. His life, like Kruger’s art, testifies that awareness of the world’s injustices is the first step toward changing them.

From this we learn that to know is to arm oneself. Power, control, sexuality, race—these are not abstract matters, but forces that touch every life. If we turn away, if we drown ourselves in ignorance or distraction, we become as clay in the hands of those who would mold us. But if we read, if we listen, if we stay awake to the pulse of the world, then we are no longer powerless. We begin to see the invisible threads that bind society together, and with vision comes the possibility of change.

Yet knowledge alone is not enough. Kruger did not merely consume the news; she transformed it into art, into confrontation, into dialogue. This is our task as well: not only to watch and read, but to respond. Whether through speech, writing, protest, teaching, or creation, the vigilant heart must act. Awareness that does not move into action is a seed that never grows. The world needs not only readers of newspapers but doers of justice, not only watchers of power but challengers of it.

Therefore, the lesson is clear: immerse yourself in the world, but do not be consumed by it. Seek to understand the forces of power, control, sexuality, and race that shape your society. Do not shrink from them in fear, nor deny their weight, but confront them with courage. Read deeply, listen carefully, discern wisely—and then create, speak, and act. For to be awake in such times is itself an act of resistance, and to transform awareness into action is the path to justice.

Thus, remember the words of Barbara Kruger. To be a “news junkie” is not a weakness, but a discipline. It is the training of the soul to remain awake in a world that would prefer you to sleep. Embrace this vigilance, and let it guide your hand, your tongue, and your heart toward the work of truth. For only those who see the world clearly can hope to remake it.