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Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)

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Re: Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)

#451

Post by ROTMetro »

salty_biscuits wrote: post #338
macksd wrote: post #4

I 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…

That was really shocking for me the first time I went to China and watched their version on state sponsored television, around 2005. The contrast between the doom version of the news back home, to china's overly positive "15 people are missing in a coal mine but we are trying our darnedest to get them out" was really confronting. Made me realise that it has entertainment/manipulation as a goal, not providing informat…

Oh wow, I found the Imams preaching on TV in China the most surprising, and only now in your context realize they were probably trying to establish Party authority of the religion.

Re: Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)

#452

Post by hoffspot »

wholinator2 wrote: post #375
gopher_space wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The newspaper makes a ton of money off of those inserts and agreements about them happen at the top of the org chart. Nobody you can reach has any power here. In addition, if their support was young enough they'd have no idea what you're talking about. "That crazy guy who thinks there's a conspiracy to print off ads and put them in his mailbox called again today!"

Well I would imagine any individual old enough to rent and/or shop at bed bath and beyond would be fairly familiar with the concept of receiving print ads in the mail. Those Valpack things are pretty common where I live and they're essentially exactly the same as the newspaper inserts, just like 50 of em in a branded envelope

The Valpack envelops make me so sad. I just take them out of the mailbox and toss them into the recycling bin. Think of all the trees used, energy wasted, and chemicals used in making the ink that are now in the environment for absolutely no reason.

Re: Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)

#453

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

Am I paranoid or do certain topics get upvoted with suspicious frequency lately?

Now that shit is popping off in Europe there is an uptick in NSA/CIA/America bad posts with anti-free press sprinkled on top. Every post about events unfolding in Europe were flagged and didn't even reach the front page here until the last few days.

In the Jeff Geerling post Dang revealed that there are groups of inauthentic actors on this site.

Re: Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)

#455

Post by yojo »

bnralt wrote: post #370
yojo wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a firm believer in quality over quantity when it comes to news. Google News has gotten increasingly annoying though, forcing me harder toward the "personalized" results, the kind of filter bubble I'm intentionally trying to avoid. What worked well for me was getting a print subscription to the Economist. They definitely have a bias (particularly in their editorials), but it's mostly of the "free trade" variety, w…

It seems like that still runs into the issues that are outlined in the blog post, however (not accomplishing anything, shallow conversations about current events, better ways to stay informed, and feeling like you're doing something when you're not). In general it's hard to overcome these issues as long as you're still reading something considered news. I think a good exercise is to spend a few weeks using archive.or…

The article leads with drawing a distinction between pop news and more traditional journalism:

"To be clear, I’m mostly talking about following TV and internet newscasts here. This post isn’t an indictment of journalism as a whole."

Good print journalism does go into depth, it does give useful background, and it does teach you about the proximate causes of events. It is not full of pundits trying to score internet points or stoke outrage/fear for views/clicks.

I think there's still value in having an informed population. If you don't have a good understanding of the state of the world it's going to be very difficult to change it in a deliberative and positive way. If you're informed you can make rational decisions on things like giving and voting. I don't know how you can do that otherwise.

I'm not convinced there's a better way of getting an understanding of what's going on in the world than reading a well-curated digest of what's going on in the world. You can certainly go deeper on a subset of the topics via specialized outlets, or long-form books and articles, but good journalism should give you more than the superficial understanding of the issue.

That said, I don't dispute that well-crafted journalism can be stimulating intellectual entertainment. If I didn't enjoy it, I probably wouldn't read it.

Re: Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)

#456

Post by DesiLurker »

nautilius wrote: post #13

Spoiler: 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.

My strong rule regarding news is that I will not get any news from a narrated source. if I want the news I'll read it & preferably pay for it like NYT etc. my reasoning is that evolutionary we are not well designed to reject reality, and anything that is absorbed via audio-visual senses is considered reality (at least initially) by our monkey brains. if we believe a lie we just end up creating a smaller 'universe' in our heads where that lie is true and do a sort of 'chroot' to it. this makes rejecting outright-lies/spin/BS very taxing. I have noticed that I can be much more critical of info presented if I am reading it because I have control on the process & that provides necessary space to insert my reasoning and context into it.

TLDR: Dont watch news, read it.

Re: Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)

#457

Post by tempnow987 »

joshstrange wrote: post #139
flats wrote: post #83

I strongly agree with this. I would, however, like to call out one TV program here in the U.S. that I think comes much closer to approximating the experience of “reading a 5,000-word article”: PBS NewsHour. It’s great, completely free and available to watch online, and you can even get most of what you need from their podcast alone ( https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/podcasts/segments ). It consists of fairly in…

PBS Newshour is a gem for sure and one of the few sources I trust almost fully. NPR is also high on my list.

I was a huge NPR fan forever, could hum all their audio intros etc. Donor to local affiliate.

I think there has been a major change there in the last x years?

They seem to do the same story over and over now. And the lens has shifted pretty far left.

I've laughed at a few things when it's just ridiculous. Sadly I did stop listening.

Anyone have any listening data from media markets like NY or Boston or SF (ie, leftwing) to see if this new format / approach is resonating with folks? I've been actually wondering what the 5 year story would look like now just given how into NPR I was and now how I don't listen.

I'm left but I like a touch of perspective or at least to be able to hear the other side of an issue.

Re: Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)

#458

Post by 3pt14159 »

ROTMetro wrote: post #168

As someone who just stepped back into pop culture after being in prison for years (so might as well been on the moon) my first shock was just how horrible it all is now. There is no news worth watching. Cable news is just a pile of filth excremented by a Labrador Retriever that solely eats baby diapers. I thought I will watch Bloomberg since if real money is involved it can't be too manipulative. Nope, wrong. The int…

It's pretty rare that I'll downvote someone and also respond to them.

I agree with your general thrust, in general but I think you gave up too soon and have too harsh of a take or at least got too unlucky about the sources that you take in.

There are good news sources out there. Go listen to 3 or 4 of The Economist's podacasts or to Left Right and Center. There are real journalists out there. The landscape is worse, yes. But it isn't worse everywhere and where it is better it is truly better.

Re: Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)

#459

Post by ROTMetro »

HiROTMetro wrote: post #332
ROTMetro wrote: post #168

As someone who just stepped back into pop culture after being in prison for years (so might as well been on the moon) my first shock was just how horrible it all is now. There is no news worth watching. Cable news is just a pile of filth excremented by a Labrador Retriever that solely eats baby diapers. I thought I will watch Bloomberg since if real money is involved it can't be too manipulative. Nope, wrong. The int…

Welcome back! You might find these better uses of your news time. * The Conversation - https://theconversation.com/us * Ground News - https://ground.news * sumi.news - https://sumi.news * Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events If you find yourself reading too much this can help too * LeechBlock - https://www.proginosko.com/leechblock

Thanks these look really interesting.

Re: Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)

#460

Post by cyberpunk »

simondotau wrote: post #436
pklausler wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I loved the Atlantic until they started sponsoring "happiness" seminars with Deepak Chopra.

Really? That's disappointing for an organisation with so many intelligent columnists.

At some point the employee wellness budget is just burning a hole in your pocket and so you put it to a vote. I wouldn’t feel too bad about it. Deepak is a charlatan and everyone knows it anyway :)
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