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As a counter-anecdote, I have been inundated with the Russia/Ukraine story every day for weeks since the US intelligence report. Every few hours there’s a new

As a counter-anecdote, I have been inundated with the Russia/Ukraine story every day for weeks since the US intelligence report. Every few hours there’s a new report on just this topic by DW or BBC on YouTube, and each time it’s 99% rehashing of the status quo plus 1% of maybe genuine new developments. Same goes for the new variant of COVID, multiple new sensational “breaking” reports per day all summed up as “yeah, stand by, we’ll know in a couple of weeks, or earlier”. I just stopped following the news recently, I may be projecting but it’s all a frenzy.

HPsquared 5y ago
On the 99% rehashing, that is another compromise that is forced by the format. The news org doesn't know how much context a reader has: they have to balance between a brief update to a known story (in which case a reader unfamiliar with the story will have no idea who's who, or what's going on) and a full rehashing every time there's an update (which is repetitive and harder to follow over time for someone familiar with the story).
- goblin89 5y ago
  It’t not just that—they also overstate the severity of the event covered, in each report, even as they inevitably follow that by “well, no cause to really worry yet, we’ll have to see in coming weeks”. I wish for a solid news source that did unbiased reporting in a way that doesn’t offend knowledgeable viewer/reader’s intelligence. Just assume I already know what happened up to this point; then add links/annotations as appropriate. Don’t drum up sensational headlines and speculations. Save your effort, save my time. This isn’t something that can be found on YouTube, as it wouldn’t generate grand amounts of ad revenue.
  - HPsquared 5y ago
    When something "big and scary" turns out to be nothing, they don't usually post an "all clear" on the front page to tie up the loose ends for the reader. The resulting accumulation of worrying information probably contributes to a chronic stress in regular readers.

HPsquared 5y ago

On the 99% rehashing, that is another compromise that is forced by the format. The news org doesn't know how much context a reader has: they have to balance between a brief update to a known story (in which case a reader unfamiliar with the story will have no idea who's who, or what's going on) and a full rehashing every time there's an update (which is repetitive and harder to follow over time for someone familiar with the story).

goblin89 5y ago
It’t not just that—they also overstate the severity of the event covered, in each report, even as they inevitably follow that by “well, no cause to really worry yet, we’ll have to see in coming weeks”. I wish for a solid news source that did unbiased reporting in a way that doesn’t offend knowledgeable viewer/reader’s intelligence. Just assume I already know what happened up to this point; then add links/annotations as appropriate. Don’t drum up sensational headlines and speculations. Save your effort, save my time. This isn’t something that can be found on YouTube, as it wouldn’t generate grand amounts of ad revenue.
- HPsquared 5y ago
  When something "big and scary" turns out to be nothing, they don't usually post an "all clear" on the front page to tie up the loose ends for the reader. The resulting accumulation of worrying information probably contributes to a chronic stress in regular readers.