5 ms·

Meanwhile NYTimes headline: > With countries trying to close their doors to the variant, African officials note that the West’s hoarding of vaccines helped cre

Meanwhile NYTimes headline: > With countries trying to close their doors to the variant, African officials note that the West’s hoarding of vaccines helped create their struggle. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/27/world/africa/coronavirus-omicron-africa.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/27/world/africa/coronavirus-...

walterbell 5y ago
We need a business model for visualization and quantification of narrative warfare. Journalistic objectivity was always aspirational, but at least it tried to reconcile multiple views into one reality. If readers are now more responsible for reconciling conflicting narratives, they will need neutral tools for analysis.
- redis_mlc 5y ago
  To put a fine point on what you said, the US MSM has created and promoted race riots at over 100 US cities from 2020 - 2021. The people behind it are Marxists, but that doesn't excuse journalists for enabling them ie. the iconic reporting "mostly peaceful protest" in front of a burning police station.
- jerzmacow 5y ago
  Wouldn't this system be gamed when it hit sufficiently large enough? The more I think about it the more I realise that news is mostly a tool for "propaganda". It really doesn't serve much purpose in ones life beyond that
  - tsol 5y ago
    Isn't staying up to date on current events one major purpose? I'd say it's even the reason people will call out media outlets for being biased and yet still consume their content. The alternative is to simply not know what's happening in your city and around the world
    - walterbell 5y ago
      In a participatory democracy, information is necessary for informed consent to political and economic decisions that can echo broadly across time and space. As social animals, even the tiny minority of humans with power can be influenced by the (perceived or real) opinions of others.
  - walterbell 5y ago
    Ongoing investment in expensive propaganda is proof that public opinion has economic value, otherwise why compete to influence it?
hiptobecubic 5y ago
Both can be true.
- systemvoltage 5y ago
  Sure but they conveniently leave this fact out of the narrative. Despicable reporting.
phonypc 5y ago
From the article: >With roughly a third of South Africans vaccinated, officials there blame a number of factors, including vaccine hesitancy caused by rampant online misinformation. Some critics have blamed a bungled government response. For now, South Africa has far more vaccine doses than it can distribute in time, forcing senior health officials to defer some planned deliveries. Also Africa is not southern Africa which is not South Africa.
- angelzen 5y ago
  The very subtitle of the NYT article, which can be read without a subscription, apparently has changed and now reads: "With countries trying to close their doors to the new coronavirus variant, southern African officials note that the West’s hoarding of vaccines helped create their struggle in the first place." South Africa is the largest southern African country by a large margin (60M of 68M south Africans live in South Africa) [1]. Furthermore, that vaccine demand is so low that South Africa stopped asking for the vaccine is relevant to an article that is quick to prominently blame "the West" for their vaccine troubles. [1] https://worldpopulationreview.com/continents/southern-africa-population https://worldpopulationreview.com/continents/southern-africa...
  - phonypc 5y ago
    Uhhh... yup. Which is why I posted the section of the article that mentions low vaccine demand. In response to the implication that it doesn't.
    - angelzen 5y ago
      The fact under contention is very specific, not just general vaccine hesitancy. The article appears to fail to mention it, unless there is some other quote that can be shared beyond the paywall. More interestingly, here's an approximate heatchart of the probability that a given paragraph in an article will be read by the average reader, by the position in the article the paragraph appears: **************************** ***************** ********* **** * * . . ** There is a huge difference in attention between (free) headline & subtitle, and a (paywalled) paragraph squirreled somewhere near the end, which I am willing to bet is the case for the nyt article.
kwertyoowiyop 5y ago
And yet… > South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has accused developed countries of hoarding shots, and been a lead figure in a campaign to force pharmaceutical companies to share vaccine recipes with poorer nations. Yet the government will not be redistributing excess doses around the continent, said Foster Mohale, a spokesman for the Department of Health.

walterbell 5y ago

We need a business model for visualization and quantification of narrative warfare. Journalistic objectivity was always aspirational, but at least it tried to reconcile multiple views into one reality. If readers are now more responsible for reconciling conflicting narratives, they will need neutral tools for analysis.

redis_mlc 5y ago
To put a fine point on what you said, the US MSM has created and promoted race riots at over 100 US cities from 2020 - 2021. The people behind it are Marxists, but that doesn't excuse journalists for enabling them ie. the iconic reporting "mostly peaceful protest" in front of a burning police station.
jerzmacow 5y ago
Wouldn't this system be gamed when it hit sufficiently large enough? The more I think about it the more I realise that news is mostly a tool for "propaganda". It really doesn't serve much purpose in ones life beyond that
- tsol 5y ago
  Isn't staying up to date on current events one major purpose? I'd say it's even the reason people will call out media outlets for being biased and yet still consume their content. The alternative is to simply not know what's happening in your city and around the world
  - walterbell 5y ago
    In a participatory democracy, information is necessary for informed consent to political and economic decisions that can echo broadly across time and space. As social animals, even the tiny minority of humans with power can be influenced by the (perceived or real) opinions of others.
- walterbell 5y ago
  Ongoing investment in expensive propaganda is proof that public opinion has economic value, otherwise why compete to influence it?

hiptobecubic 5y ago

Both can be true.

systemvoltage 5y ago
Sure but they conveniently leave this fact out of the narrative. Despicable reporting.

phonypc 5y ago

From the article: >With roughly a third of South Africans vaccinated, officials there blame a number of factors, including vaccine hesitancy caused by rampant online misinformation. Some critics have blamed a bungled government response. For now, South Africa has far more vaccine doses than it can distribute in time, forcing senior health officials to defer some planned deliveries. Also Africa is not southern Africa which is not South Africa.

angelzen 5y ago
The very subtitle of the NYT article, which can be read without a subscription, apparently has changed and now reads: "With countries trying to close their doors to the new coronavirus variant, southern African officials note that the West’s hoarding of vaccines helped create their struggle in the first place." South Africa is the largest southern African country by a large margin (60M of 68M south Africans live in South Africa) [1]. Furthermore, that vaccine demand is so low that South Africa stopped asking for the vaccine is relevant to an article that is quick to prominently blame "the West" for their vaccine troubles. [1] https://worldpopulationreview.com/continents/southern-africa-population https://worldpopulationreview.com/continents/southern-africa...
- phonypc 5y ago
  Uhhh... yup. Which is why I posted the section of the article that mentions low vaccine demand. In response to the implication that it doesn't.
  - angelzen 5y ago
    The fact under contention is very specific, not just general vaccine hesitancy. The article appears to fail to mention it, unless there is some other quote that can be shared beyond the paywall. More interestingly, here's an approximate heatchart of the probability that a given paragraph in an article will be read by the average reader, by the position in the article the paragraph appears: **************************** ***************** ********* **** * * . . ** There is a huge difference in attention between (free) headline & subtitle, and a (paywalled) paragraph squirreled somewhere near the end, which I am willing to bet is the case for the nyt article.

kwertyoowiyop 5y ago

And yet… > South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has accused developed countries of hoarding shots, and been a lead figure in a campaign to force pharmaceutical companies to share vaccine recipes with poorer nations. Yet the government will not be redistributing excess doses around the continent, said Foster Mohale, a spokesman for the Department of Health.