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The News Is Information Junk Food (2022)

chuck.is

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Re: The News Is Information Junk Food (2022)

#161

Post by mistermann »

outime wrote: post #54
cdrini wrote: post #47

The more I think about the state of news, the more I'm convinced that we need independent rankings of news sites and journalism. Something similar to a health inspection score. With considerations like: - News needs to be verifiable. Direct links to data sources. - News need to have history of modifications to their article. - Factual errors will cause dings to their score. - Revenue sources/tax forms need to be publ…

We should start understanding that "independent" rankings won't ever work. Let's not even get started with "fact-checking" places which we can count by dozens per country now, as they all have their own interpretations (or otherwise a single one alone would be enough). For such a thing to work, it needs to be funded. At the end, it doesn't matter if it comes from public or private hands, it's going to be leaning towa…

> If humans cannot possibly be objective

What if we were to try?

Humans also could not run a 4-minute mile, or build a machine that can fly.

Re: The News Is Information Junk Food (2022)

#162

Post by mulhoon »

TySchultz wrote: post #31

I think there should be a middle ground where you dont have to completely remove yourself from the news, just the endless feeds and opinions. It does seem helpful to know what is going on with the world. Whether thats socially or just understanding other events. I fully agree there is a limit and most of what is out there is junk but not all of it. I have been actively trying to build something to get away from the e…

Your app is awesome. I’m going to use this from now on.

Re: The News Is Information Junk Food (2022)

#163

Post by mistermann »

cheeseomlit wrote: post #121
xpe wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a strong chance that bias will affect rankings, to some degree, but: 1. Bias is not all or nothing. 2. There is a large degree of commonality about baseline ethics and quality of life. Polarization accentuates wedge issues disproportionately. 3. There are classes of statements which can be factually assessed. 4. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. A step in the right direction combined with other…

My objection isn't that its good but not perfect, I don't think itd be good at all. So far everyone who's tried to be a neutral arbiter of truth has been a political hack, like politifact and groups like that. Training the public to trust things just because they got a good score from some agency is not going to improve their ability to think critically and be informed, the false sense of legitimacy (and the ability…

What if the agency included a detailed description of the high quality thinking process (assuming they had one, no current sites do) that led to the conclusion, in turn teaching people how to think?

This comment section, in this smarter than usual community, is chock full of lazy, heuristic thinking. We can't even try to not make errors on certain/most subjects, it is our nature, suggesting we do not is socially punished.

Re: The News Is Information Junk Food (2022)

#164

Post by interludead »

It's difficult for me to completely deprive myself of the news agenda of the world. But sometimes I do a sort of detox for a month from world news and focus more on articles in scientific journals, for example. My friend likes to go to the forest for a week every six months where he has no connection at all to the outside world

Re: The News Is Information Junk Food (2022)

#165

Post by hackandthink »

boxed wrote: post #136
cdrini wrote: post #47

The more I think about the state of news, the more I'm convinced that we need independent rankings of news sites and journalism. Something similar to a health inspection score. With considerations like: - News needs to be verifiable. Direct links to data sources. - News need to have history of modifications to their article. - Factual errors will cause dings to their score. - Revenue sources/tax forms need to be publ…

You can't have news be a business. Period. It's really that simple. It's like having schools be a business, or healthcare, roads, regulation agencies, etc. You can't produce a system where the EPA gets its funding from the amount of pollution it stops for example. That's a perverse incentive. These types of organizations are by definition cost centers. And must be treated as such.

In Germany, public (öffentlich-rechtlich) media are generously financed with a household tax. Unfortunately, the quality of reporting is still poor. Most of the money is spent on stupid entertainment and sports reporting.

The reduction of direct state/party influence (2014) has also achieved little.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rundfunkrat

Re: The News Is Information Junk Food (2022)

#166

Post by interludead »

TySchultz wrote: post #31

I think there should be a middle ground where you dont have to completely remove yourself from the news, just the endless feeds and opinions. It does seem helpful to know what is going on with the world. Whether thats socially or just understanding other events. I fully agree there is a limit and most of what is out there is junk but not all of it. I have been actively trying to build something to get away from the e…

It just occurred to me that my grandfather used to watch the news only once a week, and the program was called something like "Weekly News." I think it's a good approach.

Re: The News Is Information Junk Food (2022)

#168

Post by unethical_ban »

benwerd wrote: post #157
j7ake wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The key is to focus on local news: these are updates that a person can take action upon. Seeing the latest tragedies on the other side of the world catches headlines, but rarely actionable by regular people.

We all have foreign policies. For example, in the US, our government is heavily involved in Gaza and Ukraine. It's far away, but it's also highly relevant to how our representatives work on our behalf. Should we give aid to other countries? How should we think about global society? Those things are all relevant, too.

Do you need to check the national news every day? Twice a day? Term time a day, like many people do?

Once can form an opinion by catching up on major events once a week or less.

Re: The News Is Information Junk Food (2022)

#170

Post by TySchultz »

interludead wrote: post #166
TySchultz wrote: post #31

I think there should be a middle ground where you dont have to completely remove yourself from the news, just the endless feeds and opinions. It does seem helpful to know what is going on with the world. Whether thats socially or just understanding other events. I fully agree there is a limit and most of what is out there is junk but not all of it. I have been actively trying to build something to get away from the e…

It just occurred to me that my grandfather used to watch the news only once a week, and the program was called something like "Weekly News." I think it's a good approach.

In Quill I am planning on incorporating something like this over the weekend. A single recap so that, if you choose, you only need to read it once.
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