Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

UN report finds UN reports are not widely read

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 151 posts

Re: UN report finds UN reports are not widely read

#21

Post by repeekad »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #11
browningstreet wrote: post #9

This sounds exactly like “work” today. Certainly matches my experience in big tech. It reminds me, tangentially, of something I did a while ago. I scraped hundreds of environment non-profits and NGO websites from around the world. Many of them are UN affiliated to some degree. I tried to find 3 things: 1) what the non-profit does, 2) what the non-profit produces, 3) what the non-profit accomplished. My ability to gle…

NGOs are primarily money laundering operations for political purposes. It’s one of the primary mechanics for how capital controls the execution (or not) of policy. Very powerful tool.

In San Francisco a friend ran an event for an LGBT policy non-profit, tons of private security yet no actual members of LGBT, only rich white hetero couples and the discussion was about finances and donations, nothing to do with LGBT policy impact, it was like pulling back a curtain…

Re: UN report finds UN reports are not widely read

#22

Post by pstuart »

HPsquared wrote: post #7
sunaookami wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think they mean that citizens don't read the reports (which is to be expected) but politicians?

Politicians don't even read the bills they sign.

In many cases they don't even write the bills they vote on.

Re: UN report finds UN reports are not widely read

#23

Post by watwut »

t-3 wrote: post #10
clort wrote: post #3

tbh this is to be expected? I don't read UN reports, I expect reporters to read them and distill the information. I don't read research papers, I expect journalists to read them and present something reasonable to a layman. I don't read the minutae of the laws being passed, I expect lawyers and politicians to debate the finer points. So perhaps my expectations are not being met? Unfortunately I don't have time to pay…

TFA suggests that the vast majority of UN reports are being downloaded less than 5000 times, and even assuming 1:1 download:read ratio, journalists and reporters are unlikely to be reading them and passing along the contents to you. Whether or not this is a problem is another matter; I took a quick skim through the first few pages of report listings in the UN digital library ( https://digitallibrary.un.org/search?cc=…

I would not expect journalists to regularly download them and read them without specific reason. I would expect them to be read when someone is actually dealing with the issue at hands and needs the details from an authority.

Like, if something like "Report of the Secretary-General on the staff of the United Nations Secretariat" has 5000 readers, it is 4995 more then I would expect. That is a real report I just pulled from their database. I did not bothered to read it.

Re: UN report finds UN reports are not widely read

#24

Post by browningstreet »

bootsmann wrote: post #18
browningstreet wrote: post #9

This sounds exactly like “work” today. Certainly matches my experience in big tech. It reminds me, tangentially, of something I did a while ago. I scraped hundreds of environment non-profits and NGO websites from around the world. Many of them are UN affiliated to some degree. I tried to find 3 things: 1) what the non-profit does, 2) what the non-profit produces, 3) what the non-profit accomplished. My ability to gle…

NGO is an incredibly broad category of things. There are certainly many grifter organizations (same as there are grifter companies) but there are also orgs such as the AMF which do incredibly effective work.

A lot of what I was probing called themselves that.

I’m not bagging on NGOs in particular. But it’s also how a lot of them refer to themselves.

This is more about the lack of clarity in messaging by orgs that ostensibly have a vested interest in making their progress known. At least as long as they’re engaged in public outreach.

Re: UN report finds UN reports are not widely read

#25

Post by kachapopopow »

Well, I haven't read the report about this report either, but I have indirectly read about the information it provided.

I feel like this is a non-issue since it's like the 'new' section on HN. Something that's important or and interesting gets picked up and spread (although only accessed once or twice) and is now a world-wide headline.

Re: UN report finds UN reports are not widely read

#27

Post by prmph »

Pinus wrote: post #5
michaeldoron wrote: post #4

The title reads like an Onion article

Not quite the level of the 2012 IgNobel litterature price, which went to "The US Government General Accountability Office, for issuing a report about reports about reports that recommends the preparation of a report about the report about reports about reports."

Do you have a link to this report?

Re: UN report finds UN reports are not widely read

#28

Post by 1123581321 »

SoftTalker wrote: post #26

Why should they be widely read? I’d think for reports like these, who reads them is more important than how many read them. Like almost everyone, I have zero involvement in UN activities, and zero influence over them. Why would I read their reports?

They can overlap with other interests and hobbies. I don’t browse UN reports directly, but I used to have access to a research service for work that would save and categorize relevant ones. Which actually makes me wonder if they are undercounting reads from other parties sharing the reports.

Who indeed matters; I’m sure for many of the reports, only several people in the world actually need to read them. I used to occasionally do research for one person to read and it was a good use of my time/salary. If it’d shared it somewhere and no one downloaded it, it would still have been worth writing for that person. However, it would’ve looked pathetic sitting out there with no downloads, compared to being printed and walked over. :)

Re: UN report finds UN reports are not widely read

#29

Post by elcritch »

Next headline: Most Read UN Report Is About UN Reports Not Being Read

If only 1% of us on HN committed to this we could easily achieve this worthwhile goal! Though I personally think it sounds boring and won’t. ;)

In other news, I’ve begun increasingly viewing the UN as next to useless. It’s a great idea and we should have it, but the amount of corruption and bureaucracy seems insane.

Re: UN report finds UN reports are not widely read

#30

Post by simpaticoder »

This is an institutional reflection of the individual tendency to talk about problems rather than solving them. Or, an important variant, where the urge to help those in need is expressed as directing them to "appropriate resources", which are also services that direct those seeking help to other appropriate resources, ad infinitum. The net result is a whole army of people who's expressed goal is to help people but who's effect is to send needy people into a loop of endless communication. We'd all be better off if they all quit and helped out at a soup kitchen, volunteered to visit with house-bound elderly, or something similarly physical and real. (This is in part driven by an individual need to "scale". We praise this desire to "change the world", but we pay no heed to the cost when ONLY world-changing action is praised.)
Post reply on HN