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How much should I care about news? (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I read this article recently and I was just thinking about my news consumption and how much I want to be affected by it.

I feel like it is important because shit is going on in the world however I usually don't change my habits much over it.

I also think that there should be a middle ground somewhere but I can't think of it so if anyone of you have ideas please share them.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago (2 children)

This op/ed is heavy with claims and light on proof. Is it anything more than an advert for the author's book? It seems reactionary for no reason.

A car drives over a bridge, and the bridge collapses. What does the news media focus on? The car. The person in the car. Where he came from. Where he planned to go. How he experienced the crash (if he survived). But that is all irrelevant. What's relevant? The structural stability of the bridge.

Yes. Humans are fragile and we need to make sure they are not in danger before we then -- later -- investigate the engineering components. Is there news out there that does not worry about the stability of bridges after such events? The same goes for earthquakes, floods, and the like. First we worry about survivability, and later we look at what engineering worked and which failed.

I also see no need for news to be consumed as unquestionable gospel. The state of U.S. politics has led me to believe that yes, in fact, there are people who DO take it that way, but I know enough people who question beyond the sound bites to think that the author here is overstating the idea that consuming news reduces critical thinking. I do, however, suspect that it is harder to concentrate on heavily linked article than ones that save references for the end.

Anyone try to click the link to the study on how 'links are bad' -- the link is BAD. I got a 404 (perhaps it is a regional issue?). By cutting out the chunk, 'magazine/', I got a working link: https://www.wired.com/2010/05/ff-nicholas-carr/

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

Replying to myself: the last time the news mattered in my daily life was this week when I considered flying to Fairbanks, Alaska and discovered that prices are significantly higher than a year ago. I suspect the hike relates to the grounding of planes as seen from that video of the door plug failure and the FAAs subsequent grounding of that type of plane (and possibly a second type now, but last I heard that was not yet a hard grounding, but only inspection). This gives me a general idea that perhaps prices will drop when the planes are back in service and I'm better off waiting until then.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

The car and bridge one, is an example of "human interest" news, which some reporters, and news channels, try very hard to push for ("after seeing your son ripped to shreds and your husband fall into a volcano... tell us, how did that make you feel?"). Call me a monster, but I don't care about that. Or rather, I already know that they'll feel devastated, no need to rub it in.

Is there news out there that does not worry about the stability of bridges after such events?

Unfortunately, yes. There are whole news channels which, as soon as they get done with one emotional trigger news, they switch to the next one.

The article is oversensationalized, but it does hide a grain of truth: avoid that kind of sources, and you'll be better off.