https://ozyandmillie.org/archives/comic/ozy-and-millie-19
The timestamp on that comic was about 20 years earlier than I expected :)
Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)
31–40 of 741 posts
Re: Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)
#32I fully agree with this. Scanning Google News or a couple of the more professional international news services like BBC / Al Jazeera / Reuters I still feel pretty well informed (and confident that there's usually nothing of immediate consequence to me) but it doesn't grow into "expert analysis" or impact my feelings much. Here's another thing I noticed: how manipulated / manipulative it is. And not just news and I do…
My father tells me - "Why do you care what Andrew Cuomo is doing in New York city?" and it kind of was eye-opening. I really don't. I wish I paid more attention to local news, local politics, and perhaps check-in on international news on a weekly basis. The internet changed all this. When I was growing up, my dad read local newspaper daily. National and international news were briefly covered in the local paper. He'd…
> "Why do you care what Andrew Cuomo is doing in New York city?"
In and of itself, I don't. Unfortunately, the local politicians toe the party line and ape the Big City / Big State politicians, the Cuomos and the Garcettis of the world.
Suppose you could paint it at some level as "know thy enemy" (pardon the abrasiveness of the wording) because those states are something of a test bed for what to expect from the local folks, but a year or so down the line whether that's "You must wear a mask and cannot let your child use that swing set," or "policies that demoralize the police and undermine anything resembling a reasonable standard of rule-of-law, or "we must tear down statues of elder statesmen ("divisive", old, racist White men) while erecting statues of individuals that praised and sought to emulate the Haitian revolution and its genocidal outcomes."
With that said, I can't stand that all of my local options routinely shove rage-bait National stories in your face. There is no true "local only" coverage.
Re: Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)
#33One caveat. Local news on TV can still be decent. It depends on the specific area though (big cities tend to drop a lot smaller stories). It can help you find out about stuff going on in your area that you wouldn't otherwise know about (unless your area also has a small newspaper).
A lot of local stations are more or less syndication houses these days. They might buy up packages from stringers and sometimes actually send someone out to report from scenes after the fact, but it's nothing you can't get from skimming their web page after you stop the auto-playing video.
Most actual local news IME comes from local Facebook pages/groups and, rarely, Nextdoor.
Re: Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)
#34Spoiler: He did not actually quit the news, just watching news on TV as opposed to reading articles. > I’m mostly talking about following TV and internet newscasts here. This post isn’t an indictment of journalism as a whole. There’s a big difference between watching a half hour of CNN’s refugee crisis coverage (not that they cover it anymore) versus spending that time reading a 5,000-word article on the same topic.
Yeah enormous difference.
It is indeed a good idea to avoid TV news.
My suggestion: Go to a news stand instead and grab a copy of The Economist. One who does that will learn much about the world. About countries one rarely hear about in other media outlets. About advances in science and technology.
In my opinion, time spent reading The Economist is not wasted.
Well that’s my 2¢ anyway ¯\＿(ツ)＿/¯
Re: Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)
#35So much to unpack here. For starters, being informed makes for more interesting conversations with others. It means that you get to reflect on what you stand for, and grow as an individual with an opinion. News is also the gateway for deeper information. If you stick to just the news, that's one thing, but if you then go deeper into the topic (what is the relationship between Ukraine and Russia?) then you get invalua…
Finding news sources that meet your “traditional” definition is extremely difficult. Even the most dry, informative outlets are often complicated by the need to grab eyeballs.
> News is also the gateway for deeper information.
When the news you watch makes you feel informed on a topic but is actually misleading or omits major nuance, it hinders motivation to seek deeper information.
Re: Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)
#36In light of the current situation in Europe I've thought of a rule of thumb I give people about media they consume. If someone is painted as an enemy, and the information you're given makes their actions or motivations seem irrational, you're likely not being given all relevant information. In the same vein as this article, I've also quit Twitter a year ago and it's been great. Pretty much the same effects also.
Except that the "current situation in Europe" actually is being motivated primarily by irrationality. (That's what extreme nationalism amounts to.) And I don't know what kind of ideological contortions you'd need to undergo to conclude that the man who has brought about this situation is not your enemy.
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Re: Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)
#37I quit the news roughly 20 years ago and never looked back. The way I explain it to people is that the news is simply a form of entertainment that I don't really enjoy.
I'm sure it's been pointed out before, but the news is also a horrible way to actually understand the world around you. What gets discussed is the most novel/stimulating things that happened--if you attempt to fit a model of the world to these data points, you end up completely wrong. If I am interested in a topic (immigration trends in a country, covid statistics, what's happening with electric car subsidies, etc.) I just seek out the necessary information myself.
You know what I really want? A version of 'the news' that is done quarterly and is just sampling of what's happening in the lives of 100 random people. Who are they, some basic statistics about then, and what's affecting their lives written up in few paragraphs for each person. Just an unbiased sample of the 'real world' from people outside my bubble.
Re: Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)
#38So much to unpack here. For starters, being informed makes for more interesting conversations with others. It means that you get to reflect on what you stand for, and grow as an individual with an opinion. News is also the gateway for deeper information. If you stick to just the news, that's one thing, but if you then go deeper into the topic (what is the relationship between Ukraine and Russia?) then you get invalua…
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Re: Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)
#39My favorite way to demonstrate the news's general irrelevance is to go to archive.org and look up the front page of your favorite news source from, say, 10 years ago. In hindsight, paying attention to nearly anything on the news a decade ago gave you no useful information to date. Why would today's news be any different?
Re: Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)
#40I fully agree with this. Scanning Google News or a couple of the more professional international news services like BBC / Al Jazeera / Reuters I still feel pretty well informed (and confident that there's usually nothing of immediate consequence to me) but it doesn't grow into "expert analysis" or impact my feelings much. Here's another thing I noticed: how manipulated / manipulative it is. And not just news and I do…
About a decade ago I started reading law blogs instead of the news.
They're written for other lawyers, so they're well composed, often without excessive hyperbole. The writing is far higher quality than typical journalism. They're actually informational in terms of describing the mechanisms behind power in our society.
In terms of focus, if something is truly important there will always be a legal analysis. Celebrity fluff and nonsense about talking heads doesn't make the cut. Meaningful conflict and hard questions do.