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The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

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Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#341

Post by mruts »

clay_the_ripper wrote: post #23
steelframe wrote: post #14

I stopped reading the news about a year ago. I felt like my emotions were being manipulated by a sharply-honed system built precisely to invoke outrage and draw you in to read more and more of it. I've been able to direct my focus and energy to much more productive tasks since I disconnected. Of course I entirely missed that whole Supreme Court thing until after it was over, and I have no idea what people around me a…

Did the same thing about 4 years ago and haven’t looked back. I find though that a lot of people are actually offended by it since I have no clue what thing they and everyone else is outraged about. I get accused of not caring, being disengaged, blah blah blah. It’s difficult to explain to people who are still deep in outrage mode, so I mostly avoid taking about it. My life is so much better since cutting out the new…

Wouldn't a better solution be to read news but not be outraged by it?

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#342

Post by kgwxd »

misterman0 wrote: post #291
intertextuality wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For starters, I think you're being extremely cynical. Second, unlike other news sources, HN tends to have moderate to high quality discussion. I come to HN because I tend to learn things and grow here. That's not to say that it's perfect of course, but I think you're being more than a bit dishonest when you compare HN to mainstream media news.

>> compare HN to mainstream media news HN is a aggregator of (mainstream) media news. It is in a position where it should be able to achieve a better ratio between clickbait and non-clickbait than others. Parent suggested it doesn't. I agree. Huston, we have a problem. Am I outraged over the fact? Not at all. Because I do not expect HN to be better than mainstream. And in fact it isn't. HN is just a different pie.

"If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic."

It's not supposed to be an aggregator of mainstream news. Unfortunatley, it has become that.

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#343

Post by sejtnjir »

vanderZwan wrote: post #180

Somewhat surprised that there is no mention of The Correspondent yet. The Dutch version has been quite successful for quite a few years now, and they're launching an international version later this year[0][1]. (Having said that, the authors of De Correspondent sometimes come across as oblivious to how their world views are shaped by living in the cultural bubble that is the Randstad[2]. There is a certain arrogance…

I subscribed to the Correspondent based on the proposition of in depth quality journalism until it decayed into long form leftist outcry and nothing else. I wonder if this type of decay is inevitable.

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#344

Post by pcnix »

roenxi wrote: post #127
EGreg wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember someone coined a concept recently that when you read about a problem in the world that you can help alleviate then you become morally responsible. It’s liks quantum entanglement but with ethics. Found it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10949572 What about that? Coming upon news where you can make a difference right now, by sending money to NGOs with workers on the ground.

That is an impractical argument. Say there is a situation that Alfred have the power to effect. To reliably cause change for the good Alfred must: (1) Identify a problem and its root cause (2) Change the root cause (3) Confirm that the problem is solved. There are people who claim you can leap straight to (2) and skip (3). These are people who (if they ever honestly checked) would discover that they are not responsib…

Or Alfred's best bet is to go all-in on politics, and affect positive change on a large scale via writing government policy. Capitalism and philanthropy are small potatoes compared to the sort of impact you can have by being a vocal positive force for change.

I agree with your point about incentives in philanthropy though, there are some organizations that do a better job than others about that.

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#345

Post by geargrinder »

erikbye wrote: post #308
rayiner wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you really need to read the news to know who to vote for given your views on those issues?

News is the here and now presentation of events (and basically press releases/packages), which one absolutely does not need to consume daily in order to do informed voting. What you want to be reading is aggregate analysis, and quality articles of that kind are found on sites which mostly avoid feeding you the other bullshit. Publications like Economist, Atlantic, Politico, etc.

Publications like those you named are tuned to your particular brand of "bs" but they have just as much bias as publications you find distasteful. That is the state of our news these days. I can't think of a mainstream news org on that level that is without significant bias.

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#346

Post by kasey_junk »

rayiner wrote: post #250
tptacek wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a reductive and misleading summary of what journalists do. Every blogger on the Internet also writes, with varying degrees of training and success. What reporters do that bloggers don't is reporting --- surveying and cultivating sources, visiting places, making a zillion phone calls, working with fact checkers (itself a tedious job that has little to do with the craft of writing). That's the job of a reporter…

I don’t disagree with your first paragraph. As to your second, I think that’s part of the problem: those people with first hand knowledge are often relaying a sound bite, a piece of packaged narrative. And the journalist doesn’t know enough to really add anything to that narrative. That may be a limitation of journalism, but I question whether given that limitation, journalism is a useful vehicle for educating the pu…

What does the alternative look like?

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#348

Post by slg »

hyeonwho4 wrote: post #281
slg wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really don't know what to say to you if you think "status quo" is inflammatory vocabulary. And I never said anything about suggestions from the media. You are mixing fact based news with opinion based news. You can be informed by ignoring opinion based news, but you still need fact based news to have an educated opinion on an issue.

The problem is not jargom, it is tone. If we criticize the ideas instead of the people we can reach an understanding. But by using "you" it becomes more personal and more inflammatory.

I didn’t criticize the person or use “you” in my initial comment so I don’t know what you are talking about.

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#349

Post by mruts »

jiggunjer wrote: post #271
bilbo0s wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, the good news is that you guys aren't losing out on it! You're on HN. Which means you get your daily dose of "outrage porn" like anyone else. I think many people don't think of HN as, basically, a "News" site. With a large percentage of the front page dedicated to "outrage porn". "Big Tech Helping China." "US Workers Highly Taxed." Etc etc etc. And those are just the more, kind of, moderate examples. I think ye…

I don't read the articles on HN. Just here because I often learn about new things (not news) from the discussion.

You never read any articles on HN? Maybe you shouldn't be commenting if you've literally never read a single one?

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#350

Post by vermaden »

exitnode wrote: post #327
vermaden wrote: post #321

I stopped checking 'general' news long ago. Recently I searched for some 'valuable' news source - kinda meritum from the news - but nothing like that exists ... ... so I started my own 'news' for UNIX/BSD/Linux related stuff - Valuable News - https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2019/04/08/valuable-news-2019... Because various UNIX/BSD/Linux related news sites also make a lot of SPAM and no-so-much-news ...

Regular reader of Valuable News here. Thank you very much for your work and efforts!

Welcome :)
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