Do you avoid the news? You’re in growing company

The issue is that political aspects of the news are simply too entrenched at this point. My mechanism for changing it used to be my single vote (that's useless), but the other was expressing views with people I knew to change how they think on things. But nobody listens, or it's drowned out, or I don't even get to talk to people with other views, or nobody is undecided anymore.

I'll try to avoid being political here with Trump. Trump was a deconstruction of old guard media and the illusions they put up with the political process. He reduced political campaigning to almost pure media events and games, with almost no substance for the right or the left (except outrage or adulation).

As part of that, old media like CNN that tries to keep the trappings of authoritative news delivery have been thoroughly "pantsed". Everyone knows you are stupid if you accept what newspeople tell you at face value (unless they are telling you things you already agree with emotionally).

I'd like to note, I view myself primarily as a environmentalist, and the corollary to that is I feel I have no political party. The right is outright hostile to it, the left is duplicitous and non-supportive of it.

Social media has corralled everyone into echo chambers, and then added a massive amount of cacophony to drown out any real conversation.

But practically everyone is dealing with this for whatever they care about. Social media has highlighted how little we can do, yet amped up the education about a lot of shadow stuff that used to be completely hidden.

Anyway, now I watch sports "news" and let the social stuff bleed in.

The real question is if the internet has made people smarter as a whole. I believe the internet of the last 30 years has made almost everyone smarter. What will the next 30 years look like?

But it took 30 years for non-internet corporations and governments/politicians to "figure out" the internet on a fundamental level. IMO the Trump election was the first example of that. Control and corralling of information with echo chambers has changed things.

The current state of media seems to be mired in several alarming trends that are undermining its integrity and value to the public.

First and foremost, there appears to be a conspicuous lack of innovation, with many outlets relying on reprinting or repackaging press releases, tweets, or even direct government propaganda rather than delivering original content. This absence of creativity is closely tied to a perceived decline in quality, with some journalism bordering on mere repetition rather than insightful analysis.

Furthermore, there is a troubling lack of serious investigation and critical thought by reporters, which is essential for a functioning democracy.

Lastly, some media figures seem to be increasingly out of touch with the real issues, sometimes even bordering on activism rather than unbiased reporting.

The reluctance of traditional media companies to fully embrace the opportunities provided by the internet has led to significant consequences. By failing to innovate and adapt to the digital landscape, they lost out on revenue streams such as job postings and classifieds.

More than that, their continued reliance on outdated business models has resulted in products that often resemble mere copy-paste versions of their former selves. This lack of adaptation has left a vacuum in the market, allowing platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and others to fill the gaps.

It's going to take a major shift in thinking for the news media to make up for 30 years of lost time in terms of innovation and survive as social media matures as a service.

That assumes you even read the newspaper... when I was a kid, I had a paper route for a couple years. Only about 1/3 of houses got the paper, and not everyone even read it every day. Often only a couple cover articles, and maybe the 5pm or 10/11pm news. It was a relatively narrow window into only the most pressing issues of a given day.

Today, you look at twitter and see a massive range of news from populist minutia of what a celebrity said/wore, or every single military engagement in Ukraine. The gulf war in Iraq was probably the first 24/7 news cycle engagement in human history for any significant number of people.

I also agree on quality degradation. There is both more editorialization and lower quality writing all around. In addition to personal narratives all around.

"nuance" and "exactness" may be decreased, but the ideas remain true

as human nature is more understood, human nature adapts to better exploit^Wcater to human nature