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The power of ignoring mainstream news

joel.is

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Re: The power of ignoring mainstream news

#11

Post by andrewcooke »

swombat wrote: post #8
tbeseda wrote: post #5

I understand a healthy media diet but as an able/concerned/voting citizen, I cannot justify abstaining from news* entirely. *News being defined as important information about important events. (Not TMZ, GMA, opinion columns/shows, etc.)

Do you think news is the best channel to make an informed voting choice? It could be argued either way, but it's certainly not clear. In Switzerland, the best source of info is usually the documentation that comes with the voting papers. News is just noise and opinion.

who said it was "best"? surely a variety of sources would be better than any one. and excluding news from those seems like a significant omission; particularly when the justification seems to be "bad news is nasty and makes me feel bad" (the other argument seems to be that you can do better things with your time, but i would have thought 15min scanning the BBC, say, while having your breakfast would be a pretty good way to manage time).

Re: The power of ignoring mainstream news

#12

Post by graeme »

tbeseda wrote: post #5

I understand a healthy media diet but as an able/concerned/voting citizen, I cannot justify abstaining from news* entirely. *News being defined as important information about important events. (Not TMZ, GMA, opinion columns/shows, etc.)

You still hear about important events. I haven't bought a newspaper in years, but I can keep up with my family in political discussions.

If something is important, people mention it.

Re: The power of ignoring mainstream news

#13

Post by tbeseda »

swombat wrote: post #8
tbeseda wrote: post #5

I understand a healthy media diet but as an able/concerned/voting citizen, I cannot justify abstaining from news* entirely. *News being defined as important information about important events. (Not TMZ, GMA, opinion columns/shows, etc.)

Do you think news is the best channel to make an informed voting choice? It could be argued either way, but it's certainly not clear. In Switzerland, the best source of info is usually the documentation that comes with the voting papers. News is just noise and opinion.

We have decent documentation provided here, too (at least in CO). I'm unsure if it's ample enough to make a completely informed decision.

Some issues demand more cultural/social context, "the full story" as it were. I think this context is probably best created by discourse and debate, but can also be augmented with news.

Of course, this leads to another media/news issue in the Internet Age: consumption bias -- only reading/watching media you agree with.

I try to maintain moderation and balance.

Re: The power of ignoring mainstream news

#14

Post by zerostar07 »

I recently had the opposite revelation: Most social sites are too much of a distraction, feeding us with pointless weakly-written opinions and things that have zero effect in my life. Their signal to noise ratio is definitely lower, and is not compensated by the higher amount of info they pile up.

Humans are by nature curious about what's happening, and no matter how much one bulks up at the local gym, they are probably not quenching their thirst in that way.

Re: The power of ignoring mainstream news

#15

Post by tbeseda »

graeme wrote: post #12
tbeseda wrote: post #5

I understand a healthy media diet but as an able/concerned/voting citizen, I cannot justify abstaining from news* entirely. *News being defined as important information about important events. (Not TMZ, GMA, opinion columns/shows, etc.)

You still hear about important events. I haven't bought a newspaper in years, but I can keep up with my family in political discussions. If something is important, people mention it.

Until everyone stops consuming news.

Re: The power of ignoring mainstream news

#17

Post by diego »

zerostar07 wrote: post #14

I recently had the opposite revelation: Most social sites are too much of a distraction, feeding us with pointless weakly-written opinions and things that have zero effect in my life. Their signal to noise ratio is definitely lower, and is not compensated by the higher amount of info they pile up. Humans are by nature curious about what's happening, and no matter how much one bulks up at the local gym, they are proba…

And you're posting this to a social site :)

Re: The power of ignoring mainstream news

#18

Post by goldfeld »

tbeseda wrote: post #15
graeme wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You still hear about important events. I haven't bought a newspaper in years, but I can keep up with my family in political discussions. If something is important, people mention it.

Until everyone stops consuming news.

Until humans lose their human nature, you mean? The masses have always been pretty content with their panis et circensis, and I don't see everyone enlightened with a drive to fulfill their self-assigned purpose on Earth through doing work they truly love anytime in the foreseeable future. God, what would the big corporations do then?

Re: The power of ignoring mainstream news

#19

Post by kstenerud »

tbeseda wrote: post #15
graeme wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You still hear about important events. I haven't bought a newspaper in years, but I can keep up with my family in political discussions. If something is important, people mention it.

Until everyone stops consuming news.

Which doesn't happen.

Re: The power of ignoring mainstream news

#20

Post by zerostar07 »

diego wrote: post #17
zerostar07 wrote: post #14

I recently had the opposite revelation: Most social sites are too much of a distraction, feeding us with pointless weakly-written opinions and things that have zero effect in my life. Their signal to noise ratio is definitely lower, and is not compensated by the higher amount of info they pile up. Humans are by nature curious about what's happening, and no matter how much one bulks up at the local gym, they are proba…

And you're posting this to a social site :)

Don't get me wrong, HN is my go-to source for interesting stuff to read. But it turns out the best ones link to "mainstream news sites".
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