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Mainstream Failure

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Re: Mainstream Failure

#41

Post by sleepingbot »

sleepingbot wrote: post #36
erikstarck wrote: post #35

I don't know if I'm alone in this but I actually have a more positive view on nuclear power now than before Fukushima. I grew up in Sweden not that far from Chernobyl. I have been taught that a nuclear disaster equals instant doom over a massive area. Now I'm learning that even after having an earthquake equal to 30'000 Hiroshima bombs go off nearby and a 16 meter Tsunami wash over it, a somewhat old nuclear plant st…

+1.

Keep downgrading the comment, superusers. Someday you'll end up keeping the place clean, the Digg way, after users just left.

Re: Mainstream Failure

#42

Post by shareme »

andrewheins wrote: post #15

I actually disagree with the author's point about the "main story". The main story for me, and I'd wager for some of the other people on this board too, is the story of the engineers who are still working to keep Fukushima under some semblance of control. I really want to hear their story. The critical piece of info I wanted to know that was missing from the XKCD chart is where do the engineers working on Fukushima f…

It should be noted that unlike the USSR disaster those who are manning the Japan Nuclear control efforts at the damaged plants are being closely monitored and taken off that duty before any level of getting ill is being reached. That not only includes nuclear workers but the emergency firemen, etc.

Re: Mainstream Failure

#43

Post by carols10cents »

philk wrote: post #9

Nowadays I have trouble looking at any mainstream news sites without being incredibly disappointed. I'd be willing to give actual money to an organization that a) actually understood what they were reporting and b) reported facts rather than PR, hyperbole and human interest angles but I haven't been able to find one.

I have been consistently impressed by the reporting done by propublica: http://propublica.org

Re: Mainstream Failure

#44

Post by beefman »

ecuzzillo wrote: post #30
gjm11 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are two quite different possible complaints. 1. "I want good journalism but can't find it." 2. "The general public is being fed a diet of bad journalism." To someone who's making complaint 1, it's very reasonable to reply "It's out there, you're just looking in the wrong places" (assuming that's true, which seems plausible). To someone who's making complaint 2 -- which is how I read Tim Bray here -- that doesn'…

The second complaint seems to be complaining about Sturgeon's law (90% of everything is crap); historically, Sturgeon's law has been nearly as inviolable as conservation of angular momentum. If anything, I suspect that mainstream journalism has never been orders of magnitude better than it is now. It's just that back in the day, we didn't have bloggers with photo essays showing us what we could be reading instead, so…

I never consume or discuss things in the mainstream media. I got my news coverage of 9/11 entirely from the Onion. But distortions about this topic are far too damaging to our future to go unchallenged. Energy policy failure is the only credible existential threat to post-Malthusian society I can think of.

Re: Mainstream Failure

#45

Post by arohner »

brown9-2 wrote: post #24

I think the main cause of what Tim describes here is not so much just general media mediocrity (although that is relevant also), but the fact that most people simply do not understand what radiation is, how it works, or even the distinction between "safe" levels, "slightly higher than normal" levels, and "dangerous" levels. Fear of nuclear accidents and atom bombs has conditioned most people to react negatively to an…

My favorite joke about this is, as a TV broadcaster, it's not in their interest to explain radiation.

CNN could correctly say, "living in California, you are exposed to more radiation watching TV on a CRT than from Japan". Then the viewers say "WTF? My TV is giving me radiation? click".

Re: Mainstream Failure

#46

Post by albertzeyer »

erikstarck wrote: post #35

I don't know if I'm alone in this but I actually have a more positive view on nuclear power now than before Fukushima. I grew up in Sweden not that far from Chernobyl. I have been taught that a nuclear disaster equals instant doom over a massive area. Now I'm learning that even after having an earthquake equal to 30'000 Hiroshima bombs go off nearby and a 16 meter Tsunami wash over it, a somewhat old nuclear plant st…

At least in Germany, everything what the media says about this had a really huge effect. The 7 oldest reactors will be shut down now (temporarily) and the discussion is going on now wether this should be permanently and what should be done with the remaining 9 reactors.

Re: Mainstream Failure

#47

Post by khill »

ecuzzillo wrote: post #30
gjm11 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are two quite different possible complaints. 1. "I want good journalism but can't find it." 2. "The general public is being fed a diet of bad journalism." To someone who's making complaint 1, it's very reasonable to reply "It's out there, you're just looking in the wrong places" (assuming that's true, which seems plausible). To someone who's making complaint 2 -- which is how I read Tim Bray here -- that doesn'…

The second complaint seems to be complaining about Sturgeon's law (90% of everything is crap); historically, Sturgeon's law has been nearly as inviolable as conservation of angular momentum. If anything, I suspect that mainstream journalism has never been orders of magnitude better than it is now. It's just that back in the day, we didn't have bloggers with photo essays showing us what we could be reading instead, so…

I disagree with your second point in one sense - overall, journalism might be worse than in years past. However, the problem is that the editorial standards for journalism have been relaxed because the news organizations need to publish news stories 24/7 on tv and the Internet to compete.

There are still great journalists doing excellent work. However, their contribution has less impact because of the overall signal-to-noise ratio and also because we don't have enough great journalists to fill up a 24-hour news day.

It's similar to expansion in professional sports leagues. It's wonderful that new markets may get teams but that waters down the quality of the overall product because adding more teams doesn't mean you're adding more great players.

Re: Mainstream Failure

#48

Post by sleepingbot »

erikstarck wrote: post #35

I don't know if I'm alone in this but I actually have a more positive view on nuclear power now than before Fukushima. I grew up in Sweden not that far from Chernobyl. I have been taught that a nuclear disaster equals instant doom over a massive area. Now I'm learning that even after having an earthquake equal to 30'000 Hiroshima bombs go off nearby and a 16 meter Tsunami wash over it, a somewhat old nuclear plant st…

+1.

Re: Mainstream Failure

#49

Post by sleepingbot »

albertzeyer wrote: post #46
erikstarck wrote: post #35

I don't know if I'm alone in this but I actually have a more positive view on nuclear power now than before Fukushima. I grew up in Sweden not that far from Chernobyl. I have been taught that a nuclear disaster equals instant doom over a massive area. Now I'm learning that even after having an earthquake equal to 30'000 Hiroshima bombs go off nearby and a 16 meter Tsunami wash over it, a somewhat old nuclear plant st…

At least in Germany, everything what the media says about this had a really huge effect. The 7 oldest reactors will be shut down now (temporarily) and the discussion is going on now wether this should be permanently and what should be done with the remaining 9 reactors.

Look at how coal is being used in Germany to produce energy. Nobody seems to complain about it. Coal is subsidized, because of fear of losing votes and strikes from coal miners.

Re: Mainstream Failure

#50

Post by sleepingbot »

sleepingbot wrote: post #48
erikstarck wrote: post #35

I don't know if I'm alone in this but I actually have a more positive view on nuclear power now than before Fukushima. I grew up in Sweden not that far from Chernobyl. I have been taught that a nuclear disaster equals instant doom over a massive area. Now I'm learning that even after having an earthquake equal to 30'000 Hiroshima bombs go off nearby and a 16 meter Tsunami wash over it, a somewhat old nuclear plant st…

+1.

Also, informing this is my last day at Hacker News as an active user. Will limit myself to see the feeds once on a while. Thank you.
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