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Stop Reading News (2013)

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Re: Stop Reading News (2013)

#191

Post by [deleted] »

skh wrote: post #173
untog wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 audienc…

[deleted]

Re: Stop Reading News (2013)

#192

Post by asdff »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #35
keiferski wrote: post #13

I, for one, would love a monthly email newsletter that summarizes the top ~100 news stories of the past 30 days. Things that turned out to be irrelevant would be ignored, while things that turned out to be important would be included and briefly commented upon. Magazines like The Economist sort of fulfill this role, but they are often a little too detailed for the high-level overview I'm looking for.

I think of something similar but less "news" lead - for example a backlog of the most "important" global issues (yes we can out climate change at number one) but it's things like "water shortages in southern sudan" at number 18 and so on that really will give perspective - when we see things like Brexit at number 67 that we know we have a proper balance. I would start with a metric like "estimated number of excess hu…

How do you apply discrete metrics to topics that people value differently?

Re: Stop Reading News (2013)

#193

Post by Theodores »

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.

The comment you are referring to was made by someone considerably older than eighteen.

> Is the new generation reading news? I highly doubt it. I think the new generation is caught up in quizzes that stir up emotions, and psychological tests that determine whether a giraffe is your spirit animal.

When people write of the 'new generation' they tend to be a generation older and slightly out of touch with this 'new generation'. I think you are allowing your assumptions to cloud your judgement somewhat.

80% of this so-called 'news' that you are seemingly quite assertive in defending is the creation of PR agencies. Not sure what relevance your comments on 'anonymous news' has to do with my comment.

I stand by my original comment, there is no point getting engrossed in the Punch and Judy Trump show, Brexit or anything else of that ilk. There is also another question that has to be asked of news - 'does this affect my life or the world I live in?' This applies to sport too, following with a passion the comings and goings of sports celebrities is a waste of time unless you play the sport yourself.

Hence HN is a very good filter. A normal news source will have stories that are clickbait, hard to not be interested in at an entertainment level.

This attitude does not mean passivity, a lack of interest in the world and a lack of engagement in politics. On the contrary, people that shout at their TV to the tune of the latest Trumpisms are stuck on their sofa and not doing anything.

Re: Stop Reading News (2013)

#194

Post by virusduck »

aboutruby wrote: post #63
kaffeemitsahne wrote: post #55

I would like to add the Wikipedia portal Current Events to the list of alternative news sources in this thread. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events

I like how it's short, to the point and reflects events worldwide uniformly

and the word "Trump" isn't anywhere to be found!

Re: Stop Reading News (2013)

#195

Post by asdff »

jshowa3 wrote: post #104
afiori wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> An uninformed populace is a malleable one. A overreacting population is even more malleable. >This isn't news, it's opinion. Don't read this. >Be a discerning news consumer. Media, even big mainstream media, is very flexible regarding the distinction between news and opinion; the latest big example being the maga-kids and how people were rewriting the same articles over and over on debunked facts. I am not saying t…

How does this make any sense? Why should you distrust news because they report on inconsequential stuff? Whatever is on twitter is still a real fact because they repeat, verbatim what people post on it. Distrust implies they're lying to you, when most of the time they aren't.

There is an entire subreddit devoted to people falling for onion headlines on social media.

Re: Stop Reading News (2013)

#196

Post by Balgair »

nemild wrote: post #4

Ezra Taft Benson: "One must select wisely a source of news; otherwise it would be better to be uninformed than misinformed." My own view is that you should reduce consumption dramatically, but still read some publications. And realize that in software, we have our own form of “news” that this missive applies to. Here’s my media literacy guide: https://github.com/nemild/hack-the-media/blob/master/README.... And one ju…

I'll add my daily list here if anyone is looking for other sources. I mostly use it as a 'headlines' method, but if something catches my eye, I'll dive in. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them! Please excuse the wall of text:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC64gD1NN-GE_tfd0swtxcOA/vid... (a fun one)

http://www.spiegel.de/international/

http://en.people.cn/ (very good English, despite the HEAVY propaganda)

http://www.sciencemag.org/news

https://www.sfchronicle.com/

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk

https://www.foxnews.com/

http://www.asahi.com/ajw/

https://twitter.com/chismaiocity?lang=en

https://www.aljazeera.com/

https://www.dawn.com/

https://themoscowtimes.com/

https://www.democracynow.org/

https://www.abc.net.au/news/

http://www.congoindependant.com/category/presse-anglophone/ (if anyone knows of a better English paper for Congo, please let me know!)

https://www.iraqinews.com/

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai

https://www.newdelhitimes.com/category/delhincr/

https://www.scmp.com/frontpage/international

https://dailytimes.ng/category/news/

https://dailynews.co.tz/tags/local.aspx

https://www.who.int/ebola/situation-reports/drc-2018/en/

Again, apologies for the wall of text!

Re: Stop Reading News (2013)

#197

Post by avip »

icebraining wrote: post #181
avip wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same. HN is the only stream of "news" I consume. And I kind of miss the older HN where non-tech "news" was immediately flagged to oblivion. So now I have to consciously skip irrelevant stuff (arguably like this one).

There was never such a time. pg himself (the creator of the site), who left in 2014, submitted way more liberally than just tech stuff: https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=pg

Maybe you're right https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7494031

Re: Stop Reading News (2013)

#198

Post by afarrell »

Spivak wrote: post #172
afarrell wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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…

I used to keep up with it out of an unspecified sense of civic duty. But this didn’t result in any sort of action—-indeed the distraction and hours of time lost scrolling resulted in me not fulfilling my responsibilities to those close to me.

> I have to do things in response to the news

I would like to know what this consists of.

Is this in terms of needing to protest against things? Needing to switch suppliers of medications?

Re: Stop Reading News (2013)

#199

Post by lifeisstillgood »

asdff wrote: post #192
lifeisstillgood wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think of something similar but less "news" lead - for example a backlog of the most "important" global issues (yes we can out climate change at number one) but it's things like "water shortages in southern sudan" at number 18 and so on that really will give perspective - when we see things like Brexit at number 67 that we know we have a proper balance. I would start with a metric like "estimated number of excess hu…

How do you apply discrete metrics to topics that people value differently?

the same way newspaper editors do - they apply a set of curated values - and people buy the set of values they think matches theirs most closely.

at least this way we are transparently surfacing the issues and there is ability for people to apply different curation criteria

Basically I would love to get the weekly report from the US national security advisor - that's basically what I think Inam trying to create.

Re: Stop Reading News (2013)

#200

Post by zimpenfish »

skh wrote: post #170
zimpenfish wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> he shouldn't be so willing to accept as correct articles in areas outside of his expertise Let me refocus that to highlight the silliness: > If doctors get it wrong in areas you know about then why should one think they get it right in areas you don't know about? If my doctor knows not even the slightest tiniest thing about computers, the internet, etc., I'm still going to trust him on medicinal matters.

Reporters are not experts in the areas they report on. If reporters generally get it wrong on the areas that I know about then why would I assume they get right on the other areas they write about? If your doctor wrote articles about computers and got it wrong would you be willing to trust him/her on articles about Syria? Tax policy? Politics? You would trust your doctor in the area of his/her expertise and not neces…

> Reporters are not experts in the areas they report on.

Some are. Some aren't. But if you're not an expert in the same area, how can you judge?

(eg. "MD" in Private Eye is a doctor and therefore reasonably qualified to report on medical things.)

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