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The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

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Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#361

Post by drb91 »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #144
drb91 wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A common and agreed upon standard definition of news. This is inherently political. > A common and agreed upon standard definition of journalism / journalist. This is also political. > Transparency and full disclosure about what is news (objective) and what is op-ed (subjective). This is also political. Ultimately, accepting that news is political and rejecting the idea of objective or unbiased reporting is the onl…

Agreeing that relevance and importance are important isn't political. Nor is journalism. Nor is transparency. We can't make everything "political" simply because we lack the will and wherewithal to approach it otherwise. The willingness to give "political" that much importance is simply another symptom of the problem. We're lower expectations i instead of raising them. We're rasing to the bottom, for what? To look "p…

> Agreeing that relevance and importance are important isn't political.

Sure, but that seems to be nearly a meaningless statement. I bet we would have disagreements about what is happening around the world that is important.

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#362

Post by [deleted] »

mikekchar wrote: post #307
peterwwillis wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can we agree that the Fourth Estate's most important role in society is to report on politics and the powerful? Journalism may not be politics, but reporting on how politics affects people (and even other nations) is journalism's highest purpose. But it's impossible to completely "cover" all aspects of all politics and be 100% unbiased. Therefore, the most important part of journalism is inherently political. Facing…

> Can we agree that the Fourth Estate's most important role in society is to report on politics and the powerful? I certainly don't agree. Their most important role is to inform the public on things that affect the public's well being. This might include politics and the powerful, but that's not everything. If a hurricane is coming, you need to know about it and you need to know where to go to get safety. Sometimes p…

[deleted]

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#363

Post by stcredzero »

thirdsun wrote: post #320
tracker1 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Too true... I can't stand Trump on a personal level... but he's right about one thing. There's a lot of manipulation and outright falsities in news, and almost no research or fact checking in the twitter sphere.

> There's a lot of manipulation and outright falsities in news, and almost no research or fact checking in the twitter sphere. I think it's pretty safe to assume that he's the one benefitting the most from the lack of fact checking.

I think it's pretty safe to assume that he's the one benefitting the most from the lack of fact checking.

Not safe at all. (Covington Kids, for one thing.) The groupthink among the left-leaning media, particularly the news, is pretty egregious. The degree to which they communicate with each other using electronic networks and create their thought bubbles is well documented at this point. If you "follow the money," to figure out who benefits, then it turns out, it's Far Left activists who benefit by getting to push their agenda and set the narratives. This even results in monetary benefit through fundraising.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aid0V7IHOE4

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#364

Post by sevensor »

leoh wrote: post #141
sevensor wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the first I've heard of Delayed Gratification. That's a hefty subscription price -- is that their main source of revenue?

Is it that hefty? I'm seeing a price of 55 GBP for the US.

Works out to almost $20 per issue for a quarterly. So it's a lot more per issue than Time. Not saying it's not worth it. (Time is for dentists' offices and bird cages.) My comment about cost isn't a gripe, just an observation about their business model. It takes real belief in your product to charge that much for writing, when we're so used to getting it for free.

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#365

Post by dba7dba »

jiggunjer wrote: post #300
dba7dba wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have been reading news (news on real paper) since I could barely understand what I was reading about. I read news often just for reading. But I have also stopped reading/watching/hearing news. When election time comes, I will read the laws being proposed, do some google search and pick a candidate or yay/nay a proposition (I live in California). Just step back and reconsider what 'news' is trying to tell you from a…

You read the law proposals? I don't have weeks to decipher and interpret dry verbose text and cross-reference each party's stance on it by sending emails. Especially since my country has 10+ national fractions. In general, I try to understand their underlying values by reading discussions and previous news items. I vote based on values, not legislation snapshots.

In California, weeks before an election each voter gets mailed a booklet listing each proposition (proposed law that citizen or groups got on ballot) with argument from groups advocating both yay and nay. Quite handy to view.

And you can get the value each group advocating yah/nay also.

Same with candidates for elected positions.

No average voter can read all proposed laws and hope to understand it. And most definitely no news articles can help anyone to do so imho.

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#366

Post by chiefalchemist »

mikekchar wrote: post #307
peterwwillis wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can we agree that the Fourth Estate's most important role in society is to report on politics and the powerful? Journalism may not be politics, but reporting on how politics affects people (and even other nations) is journalism's highest purpose. But it's impossible to completely "cover" all aspects of all politics and be 100% unbiased. Therefore, the most important part of journalism is inherently political. Facing…

> Can we agree that the Fourth Estate's most important role in society is to report on politics and the powerful? I certainly don't agree. Their most important role is to inform the public on things that affect the public's well being. This might include politics and the powerful, but that's not everything. If a hurricane is coming, you need to know about it and you need to know where to go to get safety. Sometimes p…

Agreed. Or if the climate is changing you need to know about that far more than the antics of some former pornstar.

And this is where importance and relevance comes in. Getting the facts right is meaningless if the story is low / no priority.

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#367

Post by TimJRobinson »

chillfox wrote: post #176
throwaway5752 wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I pay a news site and I get high quality news from them that is curated. And since they make money from subscriptions, the need for eyeballs and page views is not a factor. Something to consider.

Care to share what news site that is?

The Economist and Stratechery for me. Also CaspianReport for bigger picture geopolitical stuff. CaspianReport is free, but I give on Patreon which ensures he can focus on quality content rather than attracting advertisers.

I really like the Patreon model, I give to 20+ different Youtubers and writers because I hate what advertisers and corporations have done to modern day media, making it all about eyeballs instead of education.

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#368

Post by dragonsngoblins »

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.

I really disagree with the consume daily part. I consume news most days, but why can't I just spend some time doing research on the various candidates and what they did over the past several years that was newsworthy in the few weeks immediately before an election? If anything I'd think that would be better as they won't have to worry about having forgotten some dick move some candidate pulled three years ago

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#369

Post by yourbandsucks »

photojosh wrote: post #214
yourbandsucks wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I were the illuminati, I'd find it hard to beat the current system of keeping everyone tied up in a culture war while I picked their pockets.

I try to post in-depth and reasoned comments to this exact point whenever someone in my social circle posts ranty "news" articles, but they just get completely flat-out ignored. I've never seen anyone argue that this elite vs the rest pickpocketing isn't actually happening and (what we call) the culture war is the real battle. It would be helpful if there was, because then I could try to understand the mindset behind…

Trying to rise above it is more offensive than taking the other side :)

After all, they can understand fellow addicts on the other side.

Re: The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News

#370

Post by cerberusss »

mruts wrote: post #349
jiggunjer wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Man, things have changed. I used to be on Slashdot, where it was a badge of honor if you didn't RTFA (read the fine article).
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