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No news is good news

thomasjbevan.substack.com

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Re: No news is good news

#101

Post by Forgeties79 »

JasonFruit wrote: post #78
Forgeties79 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That ship sailed 6 years ago if we’re being honest.

As far as the terminology goes, maybe. As far as people choosing to believe what is convenient, profitable, or flattering about the world around them, that's been the case as far back as anyone can recall. I think we like to imagine that technology both makes us immune to the problems of our ancestors and makes our problems immune to historically-informed solutions.

Oh most definitely - I'm talking about the meaning of "fake news." It used to be a very specific phenomenon: sites/articles designed to spread misinformation, usually by cloning actual news outlets in order to make it more convincing. These weren't just "overly-spun" opinions or something, it was stuff like "Ilhan Omar doesn't want you to see these photos of her training at an Al Qaeda camp" featuring doctored photos or just grainy photos of some woman with a gun (actually saw that posted by a cousin) and "Obama signs bill opening 100 abortion factories." Just absolutely ridiculous, completely fabricated stuff, designed to spread like wildfire for ad dollars by capitalizing on "just reading the headlines and sharing what looks right" culture.

NPR did a great interview with a "fake news creator" back in 2016: https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/11/23/50...

Re: No news is good news

#102

Post by bckr »

dragontamer wrote: post #82
gumby wrote: post #36

I have been a very strong adherent of this philosophy for over 30 years. There’s an adage, “there’s nothing as worthless as yesterday’s news”. Which led me to wonder, “was it even worth knowing yesterday?” I realized the solution was a low pass filter. I first switched to a seven-page newspaper (CSM) delivered through the mail. I realised the editors had to figure out whether it would still be interesting by the time…

> I do find it interesting that I have yet to have anyone bring up the Ukraine situation. Speaking of "weekly" discussions, the Ukraine situation has been brought up in my weekly Church prayers since it started. Generally speaking, if it a current event that the Priests make 2 or 3 "intentions" for (in the Catholic mass, the prayers that occur after the Homily but before the preparations), its an incredible event. In…

I am greatly in support of Ukraine and the destruction of the invaders, but

> the suffering and pains of that country are the greatest seen in many decades

Could this really be true?

Re: No news is good news

#103

Post by ultramegachurch »

cambaceres wrote: post #89

I agree with you, but this text is unnecessarily long for the points you are making. Please try to be more concise, otherwise you will not reach those which I assume is your main target - the ones addicted to short sensational news.

Agreed. Introductory paragraphs like the one below always bug me. I know what news is, I wouldn't have clicked if I didn't.

"So what is the news anyway? In its simplest and most universal definition news is information about recent events or happenings. That’s it. And so the news has always existed in some form since the advent of language and civilisations. It was transported by messengers whether it be by Hermes, the herald of the gods in Greek mythology or by some mortal messenger who was quite often murdered due to the contents of the message in spite of the saying warning the recipient against such actions. We know we shouldn’t shoot the messenger, but alas."

Re: No news is good news

#104

Post by sammalloy »

I used to start my day listening to the thirty minute, BBC global news podcast, which often has three updated podcasts per day during the work week, and one per day on the weekend.

Then, sometime around 2015, maybe 2016, I began to notice major changes to the BBC podcast as well as other sister news outlets. Suddenly, there were more ads, less investigative stories, and more filler about the latest consumer trends.

Over time, I began to gravitate in the opposite direction, away from international news coverage and more towards hyperlocal news unique to my area. Other problems become apparent with the local coverage, mostly a highly skewed and partisan bias by the owners who apparently flirted with political power and connections.

I’m still looking for the perfect balance between hyperlocal and international, and I would love to see a media outlet who links the two together and shows the connections between the two. As far as I know, that’s never been done.

Re: No news is good news

#105

Post by kashunstva »

bckr wrote: post #102
dragontamer wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I do find it interesting that I have yet to have anyone bring up the Ukraine situation. Speaking of "weekly" discussions, the Ukraine situation has been brought up in my weekly Church prayers since it started. Generally speaking, if it a current event that the Priests make 2 or 3 "intentions" for (in the Catholic mass, the prayers that occur after the Homily but before the preparations), its an incredible event. In…

I am greatly in support of Ukraine and the destruction of the invaders, but > the suffering and pains of that country are the greatest seen in many decades Could this really be true?

> Could this really be true?

In the years following the Second World War, a timeframe that could be construed as ‘many decades’, I’d call it true.

Unless your reading of the referent is ‘all humans everywhere’ in which case, it’s probably debatable. Either way, it’s bad.

Re: No news is good news

#106

Post by baxtr »

gumby wrote: post #36

I have been a very strong adherent of this philosophy for over 30 years. There’s an adage, “there’s nothing as worthless as yesterday’s news”. Which led me to wonder, “was it even worth knowing yesterday?” I realized the solution was a low pass filter. I first switched to a seven-page newspaper (CSM) delivered through the mail. I realised the editors had to figure out whether it would still be interesting by the time…

So how exactly did you find out about the war and when?

Re: No news is good news

#107

Post by ThalesX »

sammalloy wrote: post #104

I used to start my day listening to the thirty minute, BBC global news podcast, which often has three updated podcasts per day during the work week, and one per day on the weekend. Then, sometime around 2015, maybe 2016, I began to notice major changes to the BBC podcast as well as other sister news outlets. Suddenly, there were more ads, less investigative stories, and more filler about the latest consumer trends. O…

I build for myself a little frontend over Google Trends, that fetches news items, translates them for me and kinda gives me daily / weekly top news from around the world, also with the option of checking local stuff. It gives me a pretty good overview of what people are interested in.

I can choose my country, and it's going to show me globally relevant news first but published in my country, then a good chunk of news from most of the political spectrum, and then a good 75% of it entertainment and soccer.

Some takeaways: India has a lot of stuff happening all the time. Soccer is pretty much the king of global traffic. I swear, it's crazy just how big soccer is globally.

Re: No news is good news

#108

Post by gumby »

bckr wrote: post #102
dragontamer wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I do find it interesting that I have yet to have anyone bring up the Ukraine situation. Speaking of "weekly" discussions, the Ukraine situation has been brought up in my weekly Church prayers since it started. Generally speaking, if it a current event that the Priests make 2 or 3 "intentions" for (in the Catholic mass, the prayers that occur after the Homily but before the preparations), its an incredible event. In…

I am greatly in support of Ukraine and the destruction of the invaders, but > the suffering and pains of that country are the greatest seen in many decades Could this really be true?

Seems unlikely given wars that are going on now, like Yemen, or resource wars like Congo, or genocide like Burma, Rwanda, Cambodia…

Humans’ abilities to make others suffer continually amazes and horrifies me.

Re: No news is good news

#109

Post by gumby »

baxtr wrote: post #106
gumby wrote: post #36

I have been a very strong adherent of this philosophy for over 30 years. There’s an adage, “there’s nothing as worthless as yesterday’s news”. Which led me to wonder, “was it even worth knowing yesterday?” I realized the solution was a low pass filter. I first switched to a seven-page newspaper (CSM) delivered through the mail. I realised the editors had to figure out whether it would still be interesting by the time…

So how exactly did you find out about the war and when?

Probably the economist, though it might have been mentioned on HN
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