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Some Americans are breaking out of political echo chambers

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Re: Some Americans are breaking out of political echo chambers

#141

Post by smegcicle »

vsskanth wrote: post #8

I 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…

> They dont talk about or even cover the same things, which makes it hard to compare liberal vs conservative perspectives.

https://ground.news has an interface that highlights which news outlets with what general bias are covering which stories, which is sometimes fun to take a look at

Re: Some Americans are breaking out of political echo chambers

#142

Post by standardUser »

mrfusion wrote: post #129
standardUser wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's challenging to not identify with one "side" when the other side loudly and proudly support policies that directly harm (or would harm) many people you care about. It's natural to band together when under attack, and in fact it's really difficult not to.

I can totally see that. I think the portrayal of the other side by the media is more of a parody of them than what they actually are. As a data point. I moved to a red state and have befriended quite a few republicans. Any of them with a busy life really don’t care about the current hot button issues the media says they do. They mainly seem to want the government to leave them alone. It’s hard to fault them for that.…

Laws being passed at the state level that limit trans rights, or restrict access to reproductive medical care, or erect barriers to voting that disproportionately impact people of color are not parody, they are very real and binding.

Re: Some Americans are breaking out of political echo chambers

#143

Post by TinkersW »

sandyarmstrong wrote: post #124

> I would be shocked if 60+% of American film characters are identifiably Christian How often do you see Christmas used as a plot device? Or a church used as a setting? Or a priest character? I would be shocked if context didn't imply that > 95% of American film characters are Christian.

Christmas isn't Christian

Re: Some Americans are breaking out of political echo chambers

#144

Post by prepend »

api wrote: post #7
ProjectArcturis wrote: post #4

I 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 censorshi…

I think that two things can be true at the same time: there are people piling on rage about “cancel culture” to gain following/money; cancel culture is real and a bad thing.

Similar to how I think that racism is bad and systemic and must be eliminated and there are people who make a good living on raging about stuff. People building on a cause doesnt mean that the cause is bad.

Re: Some Americans are breaking out of political echo chambers

#145

Post by gnicholas »

I'm not sure this is news or reflects any actual trends in 2021. I work in this area and almost all of the tools/websites in this article have been around for years — since Trump's election or even before.

If I had to guess, this seems like a well-placed piece to raise awareness for the startup Ground News, which has begun advertising heavily in recent months (and is the only new tool mentioned in the article). Either way, congrats to their team on the work they're doing, and on being mentioned in this piece!

Re: Some Americans are breaking out of political echo chambers

#146

Post by pgsimp »

pmoriarty wrote: post #55
throwaway894345 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yet both Muslims and Christians are in the news a lot, and there's a lot of political discussion about them. I'm not sure what your point is? That Muslims and Christians should be grateful that the news media talks about them a bit more than the entertainment media? To be clear, I'm not arguing that any particular group should have more representation; I'm criticizing the media for its increasingly propagandist ang…

"I'm not sure what your point is?" My point is that religious people, whether Christian, Muslim, or whatever, have a serious impact on our lives, and it would benefit everyone if we engaged with them as real people rather than fantasy stereotypes. Fictional media can help with this by giving us insight in to what people are really like. My contention is that this is more desirable than merely leaving them as faceless…

Isn't fictional media rather enforcing the stereotypes? And by saying there is a certain way in which media could portray, say, Muslims, are you not implying that there are certain stereotypes that apply? Without stereotypes, how do decide what group certain people belong to?

Re: Some Americans are breaking out of political echo chambers

#147

Post by antiterra »

Noos wrote: post #45
api wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 censorshi…

Not really. Like a recent cancel attempt was Scott Cawthon, creator of the game series Five Nights at Freddy's. His crime? Voting for trump. No really, that's it. His games weren't political, and while he was open about who he was, he pretty much seemed to be inoffensive in practice. But since his fanbase has a lot of LGBT, they felt betrayed because he did so, and as far as i know he was definitely not trolling them…

Trump’s positions included his belief that people should be able to be fired solely for being LGBT+. You know, like cancelled.

So, people who are or care about LGBT+ share the information that Cawthon voted in a way that could harm them. That’s not ‘siccing a tiger’ for any disagreement whatsoever.

Re: Some Americans are breaking out of political echo chambers

#148

Post by rcoveson »

XorNot wrote: post #59
Noos wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. Like a recent cancel attempt was Scott Cawthon, creator of the game series Five Nights at Freddy's. His crime? Voting for trump. No really, that's it. His games weren't political, and while he was open about who he was, he pretty much seemed to be inoffensive in practice. But since his fanbase has a lot of LGBT, they felt betrayed because he did so, and as far as i know he was definitely not trolling them…

> But since his fanbase has a lot of LGBT, they felt betrayed because he did so The LGBT community was [1] and still are violently attacked for the mere act of existing. The idea that people's political beliefs, what, don't affect other people who live in that country? Is insane. Voting is a political act which affects others. If someone votes for a politician who gives cover and support to a group which - as an exam…

> The idea that people's political beliefs, what, don't affect other people who live in that country? Is insane.

Yes, that is insane, but I don't think the person you're replying to or the FNAF guy believe that. It sounds like Mr. FNAF might actually be opposed to Trump to some extent on LGBT issues. However, he feels more strongly about other things (USA-China relations, abortion), and he, like all of us, only gets two choices. So he chose the mix of good and bad stuff that he thought was better than the other mix of good and bad stuff. I disagree with him so I voted the other way, but I'm not going to hold him accountable for everything Trump says or does, and I hope I am not held accountable for everything Biden says or does.

Presidents cause unnecessary death and suffering without exception. That's not to say that "everything's a gray area so nothing matters", rather it means that you can't just take one issue and be like "I can't imagine how you would vote for somebody who believes this". Maybe the other option was somebody who is ~3% more likely to start a bad war, for example. Or 3% more likely to lose an inevitable war. I might take a bible-thumping evangelical with a slightly higher chance of winning WWII over somebody with exactly my ethics in office with less strategic acumen. It depends on the actual degree of difference. I'd have to assign weights to things and sum them up, because it's democracy and that's what you do.

Re: Some Americans are breaking out of political echo chambers

#149

Post by unknown_error »

threatofrain wrote: post #119
makomk wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Guardian and the BBC basically represent the same political faction as say the New York Times and CNN in the USA, except obviously with more focus on UK stories. You can even see the overlap when they report on stories from the other country.

Inter-rater reliability is very useful. You don't simply seek novelty, right? Not having the vocabulary to discuss the agreement and disagreement of the BBC or the Guardian would be a mistake if you want to talk about news fluency, as they have made a name for themselves in the west.

The BBC and the Guardian do differ on takes, but both are very far cry from the right-leaning outlets. Both are part of the same left-leaning echo chamber in that nobody on the right trusts either source.

Good luck getting a Breitbart/Newsmax reader to switch to even the NY Times or Reuters or AP, much less The Guardian.

Re: Some Americans are breaking out of political echo chambers

#150

Post by pgsimp »

jccalhoun wrote: post #26

I am starting to think that it isn't really the "news" but the commentary. Most sites will cover many of the same events. There will be different focuses but a large percentage of the information is the same. But I recently visited my senior citizen parents and got some exposure to Fox News. During their commentary shows they just throw outrage after outrage at the wall and see what sticks. One example was trying to…

All media does that, not just Fox news. They all try to get you enraged all of the time, no matter what political side you are on.
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