3 ms·

I have often thought it would be brilliant to have more of an objective source and to have this in the sparsest text format with images optional, all downloadab

I have often thought it would be brilliant to have more of an objective source and to have this in the sparsest text format with images optional, all downloadable to your phone each morning in a small archive for browsing during the day. No ads, no ridiculous bandwidth consuming formatting, just the simplest usable hypertext format possible. I also think the media seems to have lost the plot over the last couple of years over Brexit and the US election for example, and there seems to be relentless and unquestioned promotion of certain ideologies over others. Whichever side you are on, I'd hope you would agree that it cannot be healthy to have the media controlled by a group that is overwhelmingly pro one side or the other. I think there is a desperate need for a news source that communicates the facts, comprehensively in breadth and detail, and in an unbiased way, but I think the chances of us getting this are slim to none. How is a new entrant to discover what is being suppressed by the MSM? If discovered, how will it be gathered if no other organisation is prepared to cover it? How can seeded stories be identified? I think there are serious problems with the idea. In consolation, I like to think that the general population are far savvier and less susceptible to manipulation than those that would try to manipulate us think. Going back to Brexit and Trump for example, the overwhelming majority of the media seemed to be anti-Brexit and anti-Trump - certainly in the UK the media spoke virtually with one voice warning us about the armageddon that would inescapeably follow a Brexit vote, and yet look what happened. I think the media have burned through people's trust with their bullshit.

savethefuture 9y ago
It is not health for a very small few individuals and companies to own a large majority of the media (including radios, tv, mags, newspapers, internet sites, etc). Look at those at the top, and follow the money.
westoncb 9y ago
> How is a new entrant to discover what is being suppressed by the MSM? The MSM isn't the only way of acquiring information about current events, so it isn't necessary to discover what they withhold. Not that that wouldn't also be valuable—I'm just trying to get at the potential range of approaches here. I'm only advocating that resources get put into a serious search for solutions. I think it's highly unlikely any of us would just be able to produce the solution in a few minutes of thinking about it.
- Boothroid 9y ago
  Actually, a tool that compares texts from different sources on the same topic and ranks them on different criteria could be interesting, i.e. assertion, logical fallacy, emotive language, inclusion/exclusion of key details; very off the top of my head. Additionally - over time you could build up a nice corpus for one source versus another source. I guess you do see studies examining bias every now and then, but the whole thing could be automated and ongoing.
  - westoncb 9y ago
    Yep, that's more like it. So what I'm imagining is a group of smart people just experimenting with and prototyping ideas like that until something very promising is arrived at.

savethefuture 9y ago

It is not health for a very small few individuals and companies to own a large majority of the media (including radios, tv, mags, newspapers, internet sites, etc). Look at those at the top, and follow the money.

westoncb 9y ago

> How is a new entrant to discover what is being suppressed by the MSM? The MSM isn't the only way of acquiring information about current events, so it isn't necessary to discover what they withhold. Not that that wouldn't also be valuable—I'm just trying to get at the potential range of approaches here. I'm only advocating that resources get put into a serious search for solutions. I think it's highly unlikely any of us would just be able to produce the solution in a few minutes of thinking about it.

Boothroid 9y ago
Actually, a tool that compares texts from different sources on the same topic and ranks them on different criteria could be interesting, i.e. assertion, logical fallacy, emotive language, inclusion/exclusion of key details; very off the top of my head. Additionally - over time you could build up a nice corpus for one source versus another source. I guess you do see studies examining bias every now and then, but the whole thing could be automated and ongoing.
- westoncb 9y ago
  Yep, that's more like it. So what I'm imagining is a group of smart people just experimenting with and prototyping ideas like that until something very promising is arrived at.