Some Americans are breaking out of political echo chambers
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Re: Some Americans are breaking out of political echo chambers
#2Nothing wrong with reading biased news sources. I think the difference is one should read sources that: 1) are upfront with their bias and 2) argue from a more neutral perspective.
You’ll learn something reading a liberal or conservative argue why their position is correct versus then other side. You can usually distinguish these article because they fairly state the other side’s position.
You won’t learn much reading something whose basic premise is “of course our side is right, let me tell you about all the bad things the other side is up to”.
Re: Some Americans are breaking out of political echo chambers
#3TBH I am over political news and over biased sites on both spectrums. Too much information and too much making hay. Soo much of it isn't news - and it hamstrings any politicians able to talk to the other side when they report on the minutiae.
Re: Some Americans are breaking out of political echo chambers
#4I identify pretty closely with one side. But certainly there are Outrage Machines on both sides, a network of media and personalities hyping up the latest calumny that the other side committed, for views and clicks. These machines can't slow down -- even if the other side has been quiet lately, all those people need something to do and talk about. They'll find something.
Re: Some Americans are breaking out of political echo chambers
#5Nothing wrong with reading biased news sources. I think the difference is one should read sources that: 1) are upfront with their bias and 2) argue from a more neutral perspective. You’ll learn something reading a liberal or conservative argue why their position is correct versus then other side. You can usually distinguish these article because they fairly state the other side’s position. You won’t learn much readin…
It's not just how biased they are, I'm having issues with how little they're about news and how much about pure clickbait. I used to think up until recently, that CNN was a legitimate (left leaning) news source but it's all "watch this person react to that person saying something" and amazon product recommendations for stuff no one needs.
Re: Some Americans are breaking out of political echo chambers
#6I didn't know about https://www.theflipside.io/latest-issue which compares news coverage of left and right leaning sources. Anyone know more sites like that they can recommend?
Re: Some Americans are breaking out of political echo chambers
#7I identify pretty closely with one side. But certainly there are Outrage Machines on both sides, a network of media and personalities hyping up the latest calumny that the other side committed, for views and clicks. These machines can't slow down -- even if the other side has been quiet lately, all those people need something to do and talk about. They'll find something.
One thing a lot of people miss is that there is a profit motive here. You can make money, sometimes a lot of money, by building a huge social media following being a political outrage merchant. You can find examples of people doing this on all sides, especially at the extremes where outrage and other powerful negative emotions can most easily be stirred up.
All the outrage over "cancel culture" is not about censorship. Censorship means state power is deployed to silence speech, and that is not (at least in the USA) happening much. What the outrage is about is money. While you can still speak elsewhere or on your own web site, being kicked off the majors makes it hard to monetize that speech.
Deplatforming really knocked the wind out of a burgeoning outrage-for-profit industry that had some influencers making millions by being controversy and outrage trolls on social media.
Re: Some Americans are breaking out of political echo chambers
#8I tried this experiment: read nytimes, wapo, fox, national review and politico. I wanted to get different perspectives. However, I encountered a bunch of issues:
They dont talk about or even cover the same things, which makes it hard to compare liberal vs conservative perspectives. This is the most common form of bias I've come across.
In the rare case they do cover the same thing, many articles either simply do not mention the other side or present a very simplified or exaggerated view and provide an opposing viewpoint.
They cover the same thing differently depending on which party is in power. The border crisis is a good example of this.
All of these make it real hard to compare viewpoints with a proper reference frame and even treatment. Eventually I just gave up and read Politico, Bloomberg and FiveThrityEight now. They seem to be used by pros from both sides and mostly report on what's "happening" rather than provide opinion. I can then form my own opinions.
Re: Some Americans are breaking out of political echo chambers
#9[deleted]
Re: Some Americans are breaking out of political echo chambers
#10I tried this experiment: read nytimes, wapo, fox, national review and politico. I wanted to get different perspectives. However, I encountered a bunch of issues: They dont talk about or even cover the same things, which makes it hard to compare liberal vs conservative perspectives. This is the most common form of bias I've come across. In the rare case they do cover the same thing, many articles either simply do not…
This site is great for trying to get different takes https://www.allsides.com/unbiased-balanced-news
I used to do what you did(just read a bunch of major publications from differing political orientations) but also found issue with not being able to compare different perspectives easily.