3 ms·

I hate to always blame the media because it's a chicken or egg problem. No news outlet wants to be the one to lose business because they increase the friction o

I hate to always blame the media because it's a chicken or egg problem. No news outlet wants to be the one to lose business because they increase the friction of their news consumption, so we all suffer from Tragedy of the Commons. Sad truth: news readers don't read the entire article. News agencies craft news in the format that readers are willing to digest at scale (a very brave few stayed in long form publications, but they don't report daily). The important details that are relevant to you are nuanced and aren't subject to easy headlines and even if they are, the articles don't get clicks (for better or worse). They are in the body of many articles from the better outlets, but usually the quality content is behind paywalls. Until we find a better news business model that doesn't incentivize news to optimize for clickbait and social media to optimize news feeds for maximum emotion, we are going to continue to suffer from Tragedy of the Commons in this space.

mistermann 6y ago
The CDC could publish a single, authoritative dataset, accompanied by spreadsheet-like UI's, sensible and informative charts, with useful filtering. I would think that would be part of their mandate, to inform the public.
- thephyber 6y ago
  The CDC already does it.[1] It's probably worth a discussion about why we weren't all exposed to it. Interesting related note: the CDC was pretty inventive with their marketing back in ~2011 when they created a Zombie Preparedness[2] campaign. [1] https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/communication/graphics-buttons.html https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/communication/grap... [2] https://www.cdc.gov/cpr/zombie/index.htm https://www.cdc.gov/cpr/zombie/index.htm
  - mistermann 6y ago
    Those are just a few graphics, I'm wanting comprehensive and reasonably trustworthy data, and a variety of useful visualizations of the data. It's surreal to see the sophistication of this sort of thing that exists in private industry, compared to the dearth of comparable platforms in the government sector, which we're told is populated by highly skilled experts who should be listened to. The sales pitch certainly seems to have worked like a charm, but how completely escapes me.

mistermann 6y ago

The CDC could publish a single, authoritative dataset, accompanied by spreadsheet-like UI's, sensible and informative charts, with useful filtering. I would think that would be part of their mandate, to inform the public.

thephyber 6y ago
The CDC already does it.[1] It's probably worth a discussion about why we weren't all exposed to it. Interesting related note: the CDC was pretty inventive with their marketing back in ~2011 when they created a Zombie Preparedness[2] campaign. [1] https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/communication/graphics-buttons.html https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/communication/grap... [2] https://www.cdc.gov/cpr/zombie/index.htm https://www.cdc.gov/cpr/zombie/index.htm
- mistermann 6y ago
  Those are just a few graphics, I'm wanting comprehensive and reasonably trustworthy data, and a variety of useful visualizations of the data. It's surreal to see the sophistication of this sort of thing that exists in private industry, compared to the dearth of comparable platforms in the government sector, which we're told is populated by highly skilled experts who should be listened to. The sales pitch certainly seems to have worked like a charm, but how completely escapes me.