4 ms·

>stop reading American news. Can you recommend good sources of non-american news? I always see this suggestion and truly despise american media in general, but

>stop reading American news. Can you recommend good sources of non-american news? I always see this suggestion and truly despise american media in general, but as an american I don't even know where to look.

iammisc 5y ago
So I am also an American and mainly read American news. However, you must realize that American and Western news sources are extremely biased and insular. It's difficult to find English non-western sources, but there's one that stands out -- Inidan news, since it's mostly in English, and decidedly not western. But you'll have to be willing to read journals that might not have the same kind of 'standards' the American ones have. When you read Indian news, you'll come across a culture that is much more prescriptive, much more accepting of an absolute morality, and much more willing to engage in stereotypes -- things that are very foreign to most Western people. Russian news is also good. Al Jazeera is good but you must understand not to take them seriously. For example -- and please, I am not trying to be inciting, just describing reality -- the muslims are hated in India and all the non-muslim neighboring countries. Americans find this shocking, but it's a strong cultural bias in all the countries around the middle east. Why is that? Why are people there so open about it and find nothing wrong with that? The typical American reaction is to chastise the Indian or the Chinese or the Russian, but we must instead seek to understand. What do they know about these people that we do not? Could it be that they are biased against them because centuries and centuries of contact with them have shown that Muslim culture is highly dogmatic and persistent? If so, what does that tell us about how we need to act in those places? Again, this is not about whether we should hate muslims or not (we shouldn't). It's about understanding that behavior influences people's stereotypes, and their stereotypes might tell us something. This is absolutely foreign to American understandings of how to approach other cultures, but it's something that exists in the majority of the world. Only in the west are we taught that stereotypes should be dismissed out of hand as the result of unfair bias.
FabHK 5y ago
I'd look at The Economist, though that's still very much old school Washington Consensus (but not as US centric as most US news). I consider it quite reliable. For alternate view points, and to see how other societies frame things, you could look at Spiegel (Germany), Al Jazeera (Qatar), RT (Russia), Global Times (China). With the last two, you definitely enter the territory of propaganda. - Spiegel: https://www.spiegel.de/international/ https://www.spiegel.de/international/ (Note: English articles only published every few days) > one of continental Europe's most influential magazines. […] The magazine plays the role of opinion leader in the German press. […] The Atlantic claimed that "Der Spiegel has long peddled crude and sensational anti-Americanism." Sample: "It’s Time to Cut Funding for Orbán. Hungarian President Viktor Orbán and other like-minded populists are trampling on the EU’s values with growing disregard. Europe has an effective option for taking action and it is time to use it: We need to cut Hungary’s EU funds." - Al Jazeera: https://www.aljazeera.com https://www.aljazeera.com > The network is sometimes perceived to have mainly Islamist perspectives, promoting the Muslim Brotherhood, and having a pro-Sunni and an anti-Shia bias in its reporting of regional issues. […] According to The Atlantic magazine, Al Jazeera presents a far more moderate, Westernized face than Islamic jihadism or rigid Sunni orthodoxy. […] The channel is considered by some to be a propaganda channel of the Qatari government. Sample: "The US is leaving Afghanistan, but what is it leaving behind? After 20 years of direct intervention, Washington decides that the future of Afghanistan is for its people to decide." - RT: https://www.rt.com https://www.rt.com > RT has been described as a major propaganda outlet for the Russian government and its foreign policy. Academics, fact-checkers, and news reporters […] have identified RT as a purveyor of disinformation and conspiracy theories. Sample: "Stop obsessing about Moscow & fix human rights violations in your own backyard, Russian embassy in Washington tells US State Dept" or "Critical race theory is bringing back segregation to America, and turning the clock back to the 1960s" - Global Times: https://www.globaltimes.cn/index.html https://www.globaltimes.cn/index.html > has been labelled as "China's Fox News" by some scholars and writers for its propagandistic slant and the monetization of nationalism. It is part of a broader set of Chinese state media outlets that constitute the Chinese government's propaganda apparatus Sample: "US, Taiwan crossing the red line will create historic opportunity for PLA fighter jets to fly over island. If US and Taiwan's tricks continue, a major crisis in the Taiwan Straits will doomed to take place." or "Largest HK opposition group likely to disband; city no longer secessionism hotbed"
- iammisc 5y ago
  They're all propaganda, not just RT and Global Times.

iammisc 5y ago

So I am also an American and mainly read American news. However, you must realize that American and Western news sources are extremely biased and insular. It's difficult to find English non-western sources, but there's one that stands out -- Inidan news, since it's mostly in English, and decidedly not western. But you'll have to be willing to read journals that might not have the same kind of 'standards' the American ones have. When you read Indian news, you'll come across a culture that is much more prescriptive, much more accepting of an absolute morality, and much more willing to engage in stereotypes -- things that are very foreign to most Western people. Russian news is also good. Al Jazeera is good but you must understand not to take them seriously. For example -- and please, I am not trying to be inciting, just describing reality -- the muslims are hated in India and all the non-muslim neighboring countries. Americans find this shocking, but it's a strong cultural bias in all the countries around the middle east. Why is that? Why are people there so open about it and find nothing wrong with that? The typical American reaction is to chastise the Indian or the Chinese or the Russian, but we must instead seek to understand. What do they know about these people that we do not? Could it be that they are biased against them because centuries and centuries of contact with them have shown that Muslim culture is highly dogmatic and persistent? If so, what does that tell us about how we need to act in those places? Again, this is not about whether we should hate muslims or not (we shouldn't). It's about understanding that behavior influences people's stereotypes, and their stereotypes might tell us something. This is absolutely foreign to American understandings of how to approach other cultures, but it's something that exists in the majority of the world. Only in the west are we taught that stereotypes should be dismissed out of hand as the result of unfair bias.

FabHK 5y ago

I'd look at The Economist, though that's still very much old school Washington Consensus (but not as US centric as most US news). I consider it quite reliable. For alternate view points, and to see how other societies frame things, you could look at Spiegel (Germany), Al Jazeera (Qatar), RT (Russia), Global Times (China). With the last two, you definitely enter the territory of propaganda. - Spiegel: https://www.spiegel.de/international/ https://www.spiegel.de/international/ (Note: English articles only published every few days) > one of continental Europe's most influential magazines. […] The magazine plays the role of opinion leader in the German press. […] The Atlantic claimed that "Der Spiegel has long peddled crude and sensational anti-Americanism." Sample: "It’s Time to Cut Funding for Orbán. Hungarian President Viktor Orbán and other like-minded populists are trampling on the EU’s values with growing disregard. Europe has an effective option for taking action and it is time to use it: We need to cut Hungary’s EU funds." - Al Jazeera: https://www.aljazeera.com https://www.aljazeera.com > The network is sometimes perceived to have mainly Islamist perspectives, promoting the Muslim Brotherhood, and having a pro-Sunni and an anti-Shia bias in its reporting of regional issues. […] According to The Atlantic magazine, Al Jazeera presents a far more moderate, Westernized face than Islamic jihadism or rigid Sunni orthodoxy. […] The channel is considered by some to be a propaganda channel of the Qatari government. Sample: "The US is leaving Afghanistan, but what is it leaving behind? After 20 years of direct intervention, Washington decides that the future of Afghanistan is for its people to decide." - RT: https://www.rt.com https://www.rt.com > RT has been described as a major propaganda outlet for the Russian government and its foreign policy. Academics, fact-checkers, and news reporters […] have identified RT as a purveyor of disinformation and conspiracy theories. Sample: "Stop obsessing about Moscow & fix human rights violations in your own backyard, Russian embassy in Washington tells US State Dept" or "Critical race theory is bringing back segregation to America, and turning the clock back to the 1960s" - Global Times: https://www.globaltimes.cn/index.html https://www.globaltimes.cn/index.html > has been labelled as "China's Fox News" by some scholars and writers for its propagandistic slant and the monetization of nationalism. It is part of a broader set of Chinese state media outlets that constitute the Chinese government's propaganda apparatus Sample: "US, Taiwan crossing the red line will create historic opportunity for PLA fighter jets to fly over island. If US and Taiwan's tricks continue, a major crisis in the Taiwan Straits will doomed to take place." or "Largest HK opposition group likely to disband; city no longer secessionism hotbed"

iammisc 5y ago
They're all propaganda, not just RT and Global Times.