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> With WhatsApp, penniless guys would send women virtual flowers and rings. Now, they had to find money to buy real ones. Men who previously sought to impress l
by blauditore 9y ago
> With WhatsApp, penniless guys would send women virtual flowers and rings. Now, they had to find money to buy real ones. Men who previously sought to impress ladies by copying and pasting cute quotes and images on social media now had to go out, bring friends together in a bar, pay the bill and prove their real verbal and intellectual skills.
I wonder if that's meant as a humorous exaggeration or seriously, because it sounds simply made up.
- lmm 9y agoI suspect the author believes it, and even believes they have reason to - while at the same time having no real evidence. The Guardian does some great writing in terms of crafting narratives, but they just don't seem to have the level of numeracy to make sure their stories reflect overall reality rather than exceptional anecdotes. Can anyone recommend a good source for this kind of news?
- pjc50 9y agoWell, someone said it to them, as the preceding sentence makes clear. That's journalism. No, seriously - journalism is not about digging until you find some kind of underlying "fact", there simply isn't time and what you're asking for could potentially be an extraordinary amount of work; journalism is about reporting what the reporter sees and what people tell them. Obviously it's incumbent on them to evaluate their sources, but not usually to write next to the sources' words the journalist's own opinion of the situation. You can usually see this structure in reporting, where sources will be either named or given an anon descriptor (here "a friend"). "The Iraqi information minister says that Iraq has not been invaded": this is accurate journalism if he really did say that. "Iraq has not been invaded" (no source) : not accurate journalism. "The jews are responsible for funding the invasion of Iraq" : fake news.
- specialist 9y agoUnsourced quotes, information is called gossip. Repeated gossip is called hearsay.
- pjc50 9y agoAnonymous sources are kind of essential to getting certain kinds of information where the source would face reprisal, e.g most famously Daniel Ellsberg. This is why the "Chatham House rules" exist and are widely used. https://www.chathamhouse.org/about/chatham-house-rule https://www.chathamhouse.org/about/chatham-house-rule
- specialist 9y agoJournalism's continued defense of chivalry further enables the abuse. Akin to bringing cardboard tube swords to a gun fight.
- pjc50 9y agoSo .. how do you propose covering stories where nobody will talk on the record?
- specialist 9y agoHow do you propose filtering, ignoring the vast majority of "news" that is unsourced?
- digi_owl 9y agoSeems more like in both instances, the person is proving that they have money to "waste" more than anything else. Plus ca change...