The News Is Information Junk Food (2022)
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Re: The News Is Information Junk Food (2022)
#2This style of title seems purposively written to preach to the choir.
Re: The News Is Information Junk Food (2022)
#3I like the system in UK and Germany where taxpayers need to contribute a fee (but not a tax, to avoid government interference) to fund broadcasters and news.
I think not consuming news is not a reasonable approach in our day and age, you have be informed in order to make good decisions.
Re: The News Is Information Junk Food (2022)
#4"To be completely cured of newspapers, spend a year reading the previous week's."
-Nassim Nicholas Taleb, "The Bed of Procrustes"
Re: The News Is Information Junk Food (2022)
#5I like the system in UK and Germany where taxpayers need to contribute a fee (but not a tax, to avoid government interference) to fund broadcasters and news. I think not consuming news is not a reasonable approach in our day and age, you have be informed in order to make good decisions.
In the Netherlands as well, and the main news source (on public broadcasters) is a cooperation between all the broadcasters, which in theory means it's an independent and neutral organization that provides the news. In theory.
There's news on commercial channels as well but it's more aimed at entertainment, often has some lighter subjects and informal newsreaders, and of course ad breaks.
Re: The News Is Information Junk Food (2022)
#6"To be completely cured of newspapers, spend a year reading the previous week's." -Nassim Nicholas Taleb, "The Bed of Procrustes"
I rather enjoy doing that. It reduced my anxiety greatly when I realized just how little anyone making news understands what is going on. Doing it for the week, month, year and decade was even more educational.
Re: The News Is Information Junk Food (2022)
#7I like the system in UK and Germany where taxpayers need to contribute a fee (but not a tax, to avoid government interference) to fund broadcasters and news. I think not consuming news is not a reasonable approach in our day and age, you have be informed in order to make good decisions.
I am a german citizen and I always wondered why people hate SO MUCH on that system. Yes, there might be some corrupt people that give themselves too much pocket money, but overall the system works really good.
I didn't stop reading news, but I mostly stopped reading news that are not funded by the "Rundfunkbeitrag", because the funded news organizations are encouraged to be rather neutral and they don't use that much weird rhetoric. All the other private news companies are just trying to clickbait with stupid headlines.
Re: The News Is Information Junk Food (2022)
#8I like the system in UK and Germany where taxpayers need to contribute a fee (but not a tax, to avoid government interference) to fund broadcasters and news. I think not consuming news is not a reasonable approach in our day and age, you have be informed in order to make good decisions.
> taxpayers need to contribute a fee (but not a tax, to avoid government interference)
The fee instead of tax isn't to avoid political interference. It's for fee stability, without cuts whenever the budget is tight.
Politicians/the government meddle all the time. The governing body of the public broadcasters has about a third of its members from the government (the rest is the churches and certain social and political associations).
Re: The News Is Information Junk Food (2022)
#9I like the system in UK and Germany where taxpayers need to contribute a fee (but not a tax, to avoid government interference) to fund broadcasters and news. I think not consuming news is not a reasonable approach in our day and age, you have be informed in order to make good decisions.
> I think not consuming news is not a reasonable approach in our day and age
On the one hand, I agree that it’s necessary to be informed to some degree.
On the other, I think this can be done without consuming the news the way most people do, i.e. the daily dose and certainly the sensationalized stuff are not necessary.
I’ve stopped watching/reading the news on a daily basis, and instead I’ll catch up on the recent major events every week or two, sometimes less depending on the general temperature of things.
I value being informed, but also found that the majority of news changes nothing about my day to day actions, and of the news that does change my actions/help me make better decisions, it almost never needs to be consumed the instant it’s published.
Given the current landscape, personal habit change around news consumption seems like the ideal place to focus as an average person.
Re: The News Is Information Junk Food (2022)
#10I like the system in UK and Germany where taxpayers need to contribute a fee (but not a tax, to avoid government interference) to fund broadcasters and news. I think not consuming news is not a reasonable approach in our day and age, you have be informed in order to make good decisions.
Not clear it actually works though