Stop Reading News (2013) • Hacker News Board

Re: Stop Reading News (2013)

#171

Post by skh » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 4:05 PM UTC

ModernMech wrote: post #158

skh wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An expert read articles in his area of expertise and found them to be rubbish. Thus his anecdotal evidence is that the reporters get it wrong and so he shouldn't be so willing to accept as correct articles in areas outside of his expertise. If newspapers get it wrong in areas you know about then why should one think they get it right in areas you don't know about?

Because it's lazy to just assume newspapers are always wrong about everything. If we don't assume newspapers are always wrong about everything, we can assume they are sometimes wrong about some things and sometimes right about other things. That makes reading the news a fact finding mission. Discerning the truth from fiction is just part of life.

The point isn’t that one should assume they are always wrong it is that one shouldn’t assume they are always right.

Re: Stop Reading News (2013)

#172

Post by Spivak » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 4:08 PM UTC

afarrell wrote: post #127

cagenut wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this is a fundamentally conservative to the point of bordering on reactionary practice. you have the privilege of not reading the news presumably because you're not a government worker so the shutdown didn't matter to you, and/or you're not a recipient of various aid programs so their cuts don't matter to you, etc etc. checking out is a luxury only the well off can afford.

"X is only available to you as a result of privilege" seems like a very weak argument not to do X. I cook most of my food at home, which is really only an option available to me because I have the privilege of being able to afford a flat with a kitchen and a short commute to work. It is still a good idea for me to do so. I go to the gym most days, which requires a monthly payment of money -- but it is still a good id…

I agree but it also makes the original hypothesis a lot weaker as well.

"If you're reasonably affluent, straight, white, cisgender, male or a sufficient subset thereof you should unburden yourself from having to keeping up with the news secure that your interests are well protected."

For me it's less about being informed and more that I have to keep up with the news on certain topics/issues because I have to actually do things in response to the news or my life will get worse. It's not like I, or I think anyone, wants to have to read the news.

Re: Stop Reading News (2013)

#173

Post by skh » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 4:12 PM UTC

untog wrote: post #163

skh wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An expert read articles in his area of expertise and found them to be rubbish. Thus his anecdotal evidence is that the reporters get it wrong and so he shouldn't be so willing to accept as correct articles in areas outside of his expertise. If newspapers get it wrong in areas you know about then why should one think they get it right in areas you don't know about?

Because topic areas are in no way equivalent. My expertise is specific and not of broad public interest. But tax policy, for example, absolutely is of public interest. And news organisations have been covering for years. Individual journalists have been covering it for years and are as much experts as anyone out there.

Let’s take Syria for example. Do you think the reporters reporting on Syria and the complexity of what is going on there are experts in foreign policy? I don’t. I don’t think government affairs reporters are experts on tax policy either. I think they interview people and create a narrative and write said narrative. They are not usually experts on what they write about. They are writers crafting a story for an audience. I generally think they try their best but they get it wrong due to pressures of the job and limited time/ability to vet things. Especially these days with dwindling budgets for news organizations.

Re: Stop Reading News (2013)

#174

Post by pjc50 » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 4:15 PM UTC

weliketocode wrote: post #140

This article is right on. - Avoiding the daily news likely will NOT make you any less informed. - Avoiding constant media consumption will NOT give power to a central authority and reduce your rights. A lot of the counter arguments here are seemingly from individuals defending the amount of time they spend consuming content. To those who read the news religiously, what was the last news item that you, personally , to…

If you avoid the news long enough, eventually you will find that your rights have been reduced without you noticing.

You absolutely can take real action with financial implications for yourself from news items - I made £1k from a single Telegraph article on how the Royal Mail IPO was grossly underpriced. I've adjusted my pension allocation on the assumption that the pound would fall against the dollar and done quite well on that too.

But for much news it's not so much "achieving a positive return" as avoiding a negative. It's the Arthur Dent effect: one day you wake up to find aliens about to bulldoze your planet, and they tell you that you were warned and should have known about it. There's a lot of that these days. I'm surrounded by people who have taken Brexit-related actions of one kind or another, especially all the Europeans who suddenly have to register to avoid deportation. I factored it in to my job change, not as a major factor, but it's convenient to be working for a US multinational rather than a company exporting or importing physical goods from the EU.

I don't even seek out that much news any more, it just keeps leaking in via social media. I should make more effort to follow local news, because that really is the place where I can find out if someone's going to put a bypass through my house or disrupt my bus route, and have a chance of stopping it.

Re: Stop Reading News (2013)

#175

Post by unmole » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 4:18 PM UTC

mistermann wrote: post #152

musha68k wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very cool. Thanks for sharing. FWIW sharing my primary global non-tech news source while we are at it: The Financial Times to me is all the important news without the fluff and very much worth the subscription price. Obviously there is a heavy focus on economic news (but not exclusively). I especially like the News Briefing which I can listen to conveniently with a "Hey Siri, play the FT News Briefing" while doing my…

I find Al Jazeera to be quite unbiased.

I've noticed that ever since the blockade of Quatar began, Al Jazeera has been slowly starting to push soft propaganda. The Best thing about AJ is that has stories from places that other news outlets ignore.

Re: Stop Reading News (2013)

#176

Post by squish78 » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 4:33 PM UTC

sureaboutthis wrote: post #86

Theodores wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN is a good filter. If it makes it to HN and happens in the real world then it probably is worth taking note. Regarding your choice not to watch TV at age 12-13, this reminds me of reading tabloid newspapers at that age or possibly earlier. It all seemed so much below me and for people that must be thick.

HN is NOT a good filter though it's better than some. Judging by the person's statement, he is around 18 years old. For all I know, so are you. And so are 80% of anonymous "news" sources posted here. Anonymous postings on the internet, no matter where, are the worst thing that has happened to civilization since anonymous reports to the police of wrongdoings of a neighbor.

I can think of a few worse things that have happened to civilization

Re: Stop Reading News (2013)

#177

Post by Meai » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 4:34 PM UTC

roenxi wrote: post #26

He could have written a much longer article on this if he wanted to; there are deeper issues related to this subject. The characterisation of this should be news-news (company releases a new wossname, generally not a problem) and politics-news where society decides what is happening and what should be done about it. The big question is really: How does "the societal discourse" handle complicated issues? I don't see m…

I think society doesn't purposefully handle it at all currently, issues are solved by accident through simply waiting for new technologies to make all the old problems disappear. Sometimes a problem is so gigantic that no amount of spin and delusion can deny it and then things do tend to get fixed but usually with a few new problems in there as well. Regarding your game theory question: One group being immovable in thought inevitably leads to either that group gaining more members or new immovable groups forming to fight that contender at the same level.

Re: Stop Reading News (2013)

#178

Post by icebraining » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 4:41 PM UTC

smt88 wrote: post #40

skilled wrote: post #6

For the last 4-5 years, Hacker News has been pretty much my only source of any kind of news outside of the topics that I work with on a daily basis. This is true. Before that, I did not read newspapers or follow any kind of journalism. I still recall being around age 12 or 13 and making a conscious decision not to watch TV anymore. It has been around just as much time since I last saw a TV news report. Maybe it has s…

> Is the new generation reading news? I highly doubt it. Instead of doubting it, try doing some research. "Age does not impact people’s attentiveness to various news topics. Even the youngest adults are as likely to pay attention to news [...] as older adults. Further, they are no more likely than older adults to follow news on lifestyle topics."[1] > I think the new generation is caught up in quizzes that stir up em…

This is assuming the vote actually has a significant impact on the state of things. I vote, but I'm not sure I could justify that belief with evidence.

Re: Stop Reading News (2013)

#179

Post by icebraining » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 4:45 PM UTC

krapp wrote: post #51

skilled wrote: post #6

For the last 4-5 years, Hacker News has been pretty much my only source of any kind of news outside of the topics that I work with on a daily basis. This is true. Before that, I did not read newspapers or follow any kind of journalism. I still recall being around age 12 or 13 and making a conscious decision not to watch TV anymore. It has been around just as much time since I last saw a TV news report. Maybe it has s…

> For the last 4-5 years, Hacker News has been pretty much my only source of any kind of news outside of the topics that I work with on a daily basis. This is true. Why? Hacker News is a content aggregator, no different than Reddit, Twitter or Facebook. The posters here are not unbiased, nor are they likely to be experts in every subject they comment on, unless it's about tech, and then only maybe. I can understand p…

I'm not sure OP is saying HN is better. It might simply be the only site they visit regularly that happens to link to mainstream news articles.

Re: Stop Reading News (2013)

#180

Post by TuringTest » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 4:49 PM UTC

scoutt wrote: post #169

untog wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does that mean?

> Why one has to be an informed citizen? Why one has to vote? Why one has to always protest? Why one has to always support something? Is not in your interest. Is in the interest of the elected officials. They get to you through the news and social media (by sharing). In simple words: they don't give a F about you, the taxes or the roads.

They give a fuck about your vote, though. It your vote is informed (as well as the vote of a significant chunk of the informed population), you can bet your ass they'll wonder pretty hard what happened when your vote goes elsewhere.