Ask HN: Have you stopped reading most news?

> If you don't read the news, then you're at risk of lacking important contextual knowledge about society and social norms.

It’s been at least a decade since news has been a reflection of social norms (I’m in Canada). It feels more and more disconnected and like they’re either pushing agendas or simply filling airtime so they can serve the right amount of ads.

In the last months I identified a pattern in my media consumption. When there is a huge new issue (Covid, War on Ukraine, Fukushima…) I turn on the news. And yes, various big international reputable sources (NY Times, Wash Post, BBC, Reuters, Spiegel, Süddeutsche) plus the independent journalists I found over the years to be reliable and professional, usually in podcast format. Then I dive into it and try to get as good as an understanding as I can. Until there is a saturation point where it doesn’t help my everyday routine anymore. The question that I try to answer during that period is: Should I somehow change my behavior?

With Covid, it was figuring out how to navigate social situations. What are useful measures, which ones are useless? With the Ukraine it was, is my family in immediate danger? Is there something I can do to help from where I am at?

When I found an answer to these questions, I adjust my behavior and I turn the news off and only tune in occasionally to follow along and check if those answers are still valid or did something fundamentally change.

I normally read one of the big news papers here in Germany, die Zeit, to keep an eye on local and country wide politics. Usually I scan the headlines and then read one or two articles a week.

In addition to that I follow several journalistic podcasts that provide more detailed information and context on ongoing topics. They are typically a once a week overview. From the show notes, I jump to one or two long form articles if I want to know more about a certain topic.

From where I am at, there is nothing I can do to shape the course of the world at large, but I also don’t want to lose contact. But yes, I prefer to get a detailed breakdown afterwards than a live ticker.

There is also the regional events and decisions in my neighborhood and kids school to keep up with, which is where I feel it is my citizen’s responsibility to stay informed and ideally participate in the decision making process.

I am also trying to block out tech news that are not immediately relevant to my current work as that also easily distracts me.

The senders are all turned up to eleven and is up to the receiver to filter out the noise.

The book that had the biggest influence on how I consume media was Neil Postman‘s Amusing ourselves to death.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/74034.Amusing_Ourselves_...

Why does it take time to mislead?

I am envious of your faith in western media in much the same way I am envious of highly religious people that are certain what happens upon death: seems comfortable and reassuring, but it is likely not true.

I used to generally read most news, I didn't particularly care for bias because I was reading aggregates. You get multiple links and the bias becomes visible and handled. It was amusing to see how some news agencies simply dont report the news if it hurts their side. Once you see this happen, their reputation drops quite a lot and future news articles are taken with a grain of salt. Both sides do this, but it really lets you weed out the political activists from the journalists. Sadly the STEM movement has robbed most of the good people from being journalists, so this ratio is getting worse.

The freedom protest in Ottawa this year is what broke me. The absolute propaganda which was published against the protest was beyond shocking to me. Truck drivers tend to be sikh in Canada; calling a bunch of brown people a bunch of nazis? wtf?

It was the end of covid restrictions; 90% of the USA had dropped restrictions. Majority of europe had dropped. Canada was meanwhile increasing. A protest was certain to occur.

If I were PM, I'd go get on their stage and talk to them with reasonable position. I wouldn't be obligated to jump instantly but if you were to say, ok, restrictions drop in a month. Sure wipes out the protest. Instead they never got an audience with even a low level staffer? The media and government treated the protest as if they were nazis, there are no nazis in Canada. Absolutely ridiculous. The government showed their hand and it's clear to me the bought and paid for media is simply an extension of the government. Willing to publish government propaganda? I have no interest in reading any of their "news".

What is an average American?