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A great demonstration of the power of selecting which stories to cover is in Democracy Now versus nearly everything else. A DN listener hears about tons of labo
by handrous 5y ago
A great demonstration of the power of selecting which stories to cover is in Democracy Now versus nearly everything else. A DN listener hears about tons of labor action and protests that don't make it to other news sources (or, if they do at all, are waaaaay down in a tiny column near the end), so would have a very different idea about e.g. how active (and, perhaps, how useful) labor unions are, while someone with other sources may only hear about one or two major protests and one or two major strikes per year. DN also keeps up with coverage of protests in particular, where other outlets mention them only infrequently, such that a consumer of the latter might think they fizzle out or fail much sooner than they actually do.
I dunno which is more "accurate" or "true", but it's a great example of how deciding what counts as noteworthy news is itself a very powerful editorial force. Where other outlets (even NPR and such) are setting aside news-coverage time to promote blockbuster films(!), the DN version of that would be promoting a documentary about indigenous-peoples issues or climate change or something. Totally different view of the world, just because of what the outlet deems worth covering.